CHAPTER 3 THE PORTAL OPENS

She had some homemade lemonade cooling in the refrigerator and pouring a glass for both herself and the man who now lay on her bed, she stopped briefly to throw on a light summer dress over the swimsuit she wore, feeling a little exposed. She had noted the way his eyes had travelled up the length of her legs, and while she had acknowledged the slight thrill that this gave her, was also aware that she was alone in the house with a stranger of the opposite sex. Discretion and and little more propriety was definitely in order. She stopped also to run a cloth under the cold water tap, and carefully wringing it out, she carried everything back into her darkened room.

He did not appear to have moved. His eyes were closed and his hand rested lightly across his face as though to shield it from ... something. Either unwanted memories or perhaps the pain that must have been pushing it's way into his head. "Colonel?" she called to him softly, not wanting to startle him and as she moved closer she saw that his hazel eyes were open and looking intently into hers. "I have your drink and a cool cloth. Would you like to sit up a little so that you can drink it?"

She moved to the small bedside table and placing her things down on there, she bent slightly, intending to move his pillows to a higher position once he had managed to sit up. Her eyes flicked to his and she saw that his eyes had dropped lower and she hunched her shoulders forward a little, mindful of the fact that although she had changed to a sundress, it was a low neckline and in his current position, he had a fully supported view of her ample breasts. John dragged his gaze up to meet her cool blue eyes and found himself colouring just a little.

Jesus John... what is wrong with you? This woman is trying to help you and you have your face almost pushed down her dress like a hormone charged school boy. Your head is pounding hard enough to explode, and you want to reach out and touch those rather delectible breasts... oh boy, you are a sick man!

The expression that had flittered across his face then must have been an easy read because suddenly she smiled and those cool blue eyes became crystalline blue again and he found himself exhaling in relief. Crisis averted. For now.

"Can you do me another favour Gina? Do you have a newspaper here that I can look at?"

Gina looked at him, reaching for the drink and the cloth, having moved the pillows so that he was now semi reclining rather than lying.

"I will get you a newspaper Colonel, and then you will tell me who you are and what you are doing here. Don't think for a moment that I am a naive school girl. I have spent my life around military bases and know that you are more than what you seem. I suspect you are going to need my help for more than just cold drinks and wet cloths, and if you want that help, then I want answers."

Her firm voice had a surprised glint coming into his eyes and he mentally reestimated her character. No, she did not appear to be a naive schoolgirl. He had seem the steely glint that had come into her eyes, and the derisive glint when she had mentioned that she was from a military family. Likely she had her own crosses to bear and if he wanted her help, and he suspected that he would do, then he would need to trust her. Or trust someone. Because he had a sneaking suspicion what had happened, and he needed a newspaper to confirm it. Memories were starting to return with some clarity and he did not like the pictures that had begun to form in his mind.

He nodded once at her, keeping his eyes now, firmly on hers and keeping away the temptation to drop them lower. She turned and left the room, after handing him the glass of cool lemonade and this time he found himself watching the sway of her hips as she moved from the room. She most definitely had all her curves in the right places.

He heard the rustle of paper and she re entered the room, attempting to fold it back into some sort of order. "Sorry, Colonel. Newspapers and maps. Two of the things that appear to elude me - being able to refold them into their original order." Her derisive smile brought a smile of his own and he caught the glint of humour that brightened the blue of her eyes to a brilliant hue. He chuckled a little as he took it from her, replacing his now empty glass on the cabinet beside the bed, his eye immediately going to the date on the front of the newspaper, and the name of the paper itself. She saw the way his face paled momentarily and a little alarmed now, she sat down on the bed beside him and placed a hand on his arm. He flinched slightly at the contact, the heat of her small hand causing an unsuspecting shiver up his arm and noticing his reaction she went to pull her hand away quickly.

"Leave it there..." he said gruffly. "Human contact right now... I need that."

Her touch gentled and she left her hand there as instructed and her voice when she spoke to him was also gentle. "Tell me Colonel. You look as though your best friend just died and you only found out by reading the obituary. Tell me what's going on..."

"July 4th 1962... today..." John's voice was quiet and she leaned in closer to hear him.

"Independence Day... 1962."

She moved her hand away from his arm now, taking his chin and pulled his face around so that he she could make eye contact with him. "Colonel! What is going on.. yes, it is the fourth of July 1962 and later on, the sky will light up with fireworks and they will be a huge celebration in Honolulu. My father and brother will expect me to join them for a family celebration in Honolulu. I need to tell them something. A strange man appears to have washed up on a beach near my home. His clothes are different. He's not of this island, he speaks differently and he refuses to tell me what is going on. If you don't give me something, I will have to go to them with what little I do know, and the military police will be over here before you can work out just how far it is to swim to the next island. I want to trust you, but you need to give me something."

His hand moved to her arm, slid down to her wrist and gently pulled away the hand that was grasping his chin. He held that hand in his own now, turning it over in his much bigger hand and looking thoughtfully down at her palm, then idly drawing patterns on it. "I can tell you little, Gina without compromising my mission and the fact that what I do is highly classified. You, being around military, would appreciate that - I'm sure. I am airforce, although not from here - US airforce yes, but a different division...a different time..."

"A different time Colonel... you're starting to scare me now..." She looked down in fascination at the patterns he was making on her palm. It seemed to sooth him,however it sent shivers up her arm and she felt the compulsion to pull her hand away from his. But resisted it, knowing that somehow this vague action was giving him the strength to continue his story.

"When I woke up this morning, it was July 4th 2012. And I was not here. I was a very very long way away - doing something extremely top secret for my country, something I am not authorised to discuss with anyone who does not have the relevant security clearance. I need to get back, but firstly, I need to figure out what went wrong. Which is going to be a bitch. Because the one person who could figure this whole piece of crap out is a scientist by the name of Dr Rodney McKay - and he is not here. He is there... if you get my drift. So I need your help. I need to find where I came through - something has opened up, some sort of rift in time, and if you know this island as well as I imagine you do, then you are the one to help me."

He gripped her hand a little tighter now, watching the play of emotions that flitted across her face. She had paled a little, and she attempted to pull her hand away looking at him now as though she doubted his sanity.

"Perhaps the sun Colonel... you need to rest, then perhaps things will be clearer, less confusing."

He didn't let her pull her hand away, kept it firmly in his, needing to establish a connection with her, a tangible one. He would need her to help him, and he needed her firmly on his side at the moment. He may also need the assistance of her family if they were unable to find where he had come through. But first he had to convince her that his brain didn't lie scrambled on the hot sand out there.

"Gina! Look at me!" He kept his voice even and firm and having been brought up around military, she responded easily to the authority she heard. "I know this is a lot to take in,and I know you question my sanity - but look at me! Look at what I am wearing." He let go of her hand now, and began to open pockets in his tactical vest, pulling out various pieces of equipment and gear that he kept in there for field emergencies. "Look at this Gina! Does this sort of equipment look as though it belongs in this time?"

He watched her eyes, watched for the moment of belief, but it still did not come. "Colonel - if you really are a Colonel...?" At her raised eyebrows, he huffed an impatient breath and pointed to the insignia on his shoulder. "That does not prove you come from fifty years in the future... fifty years Colonel? And you wonder at my sceptisism? Yes, I understand that there are many top secret things that go on in the military - hell - my father keeps his cards very close to his chest as does my brother - but you are talking time travel here. A relative theory. Theoretical physics. Neither proven nor disproven but not a reality yet, not by a long shot..."

"Exactly Gina... which is why this should be all the more believable to you..."

She had fallen right into that one, she told herself. Of course, if it didn't exist now, perhaps it did in the future. But this man... did not look as though she imagined a man would look who came from that far into the future. But what did you expect Gina? What do we know of the future? Science fiction does not exactly pave the way.

She took a deep breath as though having come to some sort of decision. "You've not just come from the future... there is something else you're not telling me, and that is the bigger story I'll wager. But I'll help you. I will. There's been an ... emptiness... in my life these past few years, personal issues you might say, and here I am handed the mystery of the decade in the form on a strange unexplained man who claims to come from the future... I'd be a fool to walk away without solving the mystery or at least helping to."

She laid both hands on his chest now and pushed gently, then removed the paper from his hands. "Rest Colonel John Sheppard. Get a little sleep, then you can have some food and a shower. I have to meet my family at the mainland this afternoon - do you wish to accompany me? Perhaps experience independence day fifty years in the past? We can think of a cover story to get my father off your case, then tomorrow, we'll begin to unravel your little mystery and find a way to get you back...hmmm?"

She willed him to say yes. She felt an odd stirring being this near to him and wasn't ready to give that up yet, in fact a tiny naughty part of her wished to explore it further. Her past, while just that, was always a heartbeat away - she had been hurt, badly by the last man she had trusted - a man her own father had trusted and encouraged her to become involved with. He had been wrong and she had come out with more than just mental aches and sprains - they had been physical. And when her father had discovered this his anger was almost brutal and the man, a junior officer in the airforce under the command of her father had been stripped of his rank and hauled up on charges. He had forced her to testify against him, to show to the world the bruises he had left on her and the humiliation had been complete. It had taken her a long time to forgive her father for that or her brother who had also stood beside her father against her.

He looked into her eyes, saw some of what she was thinking flit across her face, saw the hurt and knew also that something bad had happened in her past and that she did not trust easily. Fifty years too late sweetheart and a galaxy away...

His eyes flickered shut now, needing the rest and he drifted almost immediately into sleep. She stood over him for a long while looking down at the dark lashes that rested softly on the tanned cheeks and her hand reached forward to brush a strand of unruly hair back from his forehead. He did not stir and she left him then, content to go about her business while he slept.

Sleep was not easy. He went down hard and was suddenly back on the planet with the rest of his team. He saw through his own eyes, the rest of his team in front of him, already fanning out to look around the immediate vicinity of the gate. He himself, hung back just a little, waiting for the event horizon to shut down and needing to listen for any sounds that should not have been there. He registered the cold. It was intense really and while there was no snow or ice on the ground, the air was bitter and penetrated the base uniforms they wore, along with the woollen fingerless gloves. The MALP had sent through basic data so they had known to expect the cold and his additional concession to this was a black woollen beanie that was pulled down low over his forehead, almost to his eyes. He brought his P90 up automatically, scanning the area for life signs that the MALP had not detected, but could still be there in hiding, ready to make themselves known now that humans had arrived.

"Teyla, Ronon? Can you take point on his one? I want to take the six"

"You sense something Sheppard?" Ronon's glance back at their commanding officer was hooded. John's spidey senses were somewhat legendary and when he said that he was picking something up on those uncanny radars of his, the rest of the team, hell, the rest of Atlantis, generally took heed. They were rarely wrong.

"Not sure Ronon. It's a little creepy here. I know the MALP picked up no life signs, but I get the wierd feeling that there is something here. Can you hear a buzzing?" He shook his head a little, as though the buzzing was actually a figment of his imagination and was in fact coming from inside his head. Rodney, walking just in front of him gave him a quizzical look.

"You ok Sheppard? You look a little... off..."

"Off Rodney? Off from what? Turned off, switched off, put off? Just what the hell do you mean...? Off?"

"Well I guess the smart mouth is the same, so I must have been imagining it, whatever 'it' was... forget it." Rodney huffed an impatient breath, annoyed by John's usual reaction to some of his comments.

John continued to get that niggly feeling that spread tendrils of an unknown energy down his spine and the buzzing got louder. The rest of the team had moved on ahead, still in a large clearing that the stargate was situated in the middle of. In all directions around them, there appeared to be rock, rock and more rock. Big rocks, little rocks, middle sized rocks, rocks everywhere. Just not really an interesting planet and with all these additional internal readings going on, John was keen to get the hell out of dodge. As soon as they could.

"Let's get this done quickly people. Not liking this planet. Not at all."

"Baby", muttered McKay and this comment, barely heard, earned him a kick from John as he jogged slightly to catch up with him.

"Hey!" protested Rodney.

"Just do your job Rodney so we can get out of here." Rodney wisely kept his comments to himself and moved a little faster to catch up with Ronon and Teyla and remove himself from the range of Sheppard's rather unforgiving boot.

The came up to a larger rock structure and Rodney's excitement began to grow. He had his hand held device in front of him and was busy tracking the energy spikes he had been receiving since they arrived and the same one's that had brought them to this planet in the first place. John, bored - wandered off, as he often did when the scientists started doing their thing. It was just... uninteresting. Face it, you've seen one rock, you've seen them all.

He moved away from the others towards an unusual structure that appeared to have been created more or less naturally by nature, or whatever it was called on this particular planet, but when he arrived in front of it, he debated whether it was in fact nature created or perhaps man, or something else made. Some of the surfaces were smooth and almost polished and he felt that energy pulsing that amplified the buzzing in his ear and he began to feel nauseous, so much so that he almost retched then and there and had to fight to stop himself dropping to his knees. The pain in his head grew with the buzzing and he tried to call out to the others, but he was unable to make any sort of sound. The stones started to glow and he was transfixed. The colour was a brilliant purple and it was mesmerising making him forget the pain in his head and the feeling of needing to vomit. HIs hand reached out to touch the brilliant purple - there was a flash of light and blinding pain... and then, sand, hot sun and nothing...