A/N: I do not own SGA. End of story.
Sorry about the last chapter..Yeah, that was bad. Everything just turned to hell for John…poor guy. But…read this chapter and find out what happens next! And please don't hate me too badly..
Chapter 6
John found himself wandering the halls of Atlantis. He had just gotten into the biggest fight he'd had since the last time he had seen his dad. Or maybe since the fight that ended his marriage. Either way, it was bad.
The people he called family thought he was nuts. They thought something was wrong with him, that he was mentally unstable or that he'd been overtaken by some being.
Nothing made sense to him anymore. Why couldn't they just be happy for him? They had been the ones that pushed him to ask Nikki out and admit he liked her. They were the ones that had said they just wanted to see him happy.
Then why did they act as if there was something wrong with him when he finally was happy?
Unless…there really was something wrong with him. Maybe they were right. Maybe something was happening to him. Maybe he was losing his mind.
He didn't know what to do. He went back towards his quarters, but he saw Lorne standing outside his door waiting for him. He stopped and stood there looking at Lorne before he said anything.
"You know..I'm not crazy. There's nothing wrong with me."
Lorne turned around and just stared at him for a minute. "Yes there is. You're sick, John. You need to come with me."
He was about to respond, but then he paused. "You never call me John." He narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is going on?"
"John, you need to come with me. It's for your own good." He started backing away from Lorne. "Like hell it is, Major. You stay the hell away from me."
He turned around and ran. He couldn't let Lorne take him wherever the hell it was he wanted him to go.
He was running towards the control tower to warn Elizabeth. Teyla stepped out from behind a pillar, blocking his path. "John, you need to come with me. You're sick and I can help you."
He started backing away from her. "John, you can trust me. We're like family, remember?"
He ran down another corridor, this time trying to get to a transporter to get to the jumper bay. He reached the transporter and the doors opened. Ronon was standing there. He raised his gun and hired it. The last thing John remembered was seeing the smirk on Ronon's face before everything went black.
sgasgasgasgasga
John opened his eyes. He was strapped down to a bed in the isolation room. He looked at the observation deck. Carson, Elizabeth, Ronon, Teyla, Rodney, and Lorne were all standing there looking down at him.
He tried to move his arms and legs, but they were strapped down pretty tightly. "What the hell is going on here? Who the hell are you?"
Elizabeth and Carson exchanged looks. He started talking to them, but John couldn't make out when he was saying. Then he left the observation deck.
A couple minutes later, the door opened and Beckett walked in. He walked over to the bed and started checking his vitals. "What the hell is going on here?"
Carson looked down at John. There was concern in his eyes. "John, you have a disease that's causing delirium. You've been slowly going insane now for the past twenty-four hours. We had to restrain you so you wouldn't hurt yourself or anyone else."
He shook his head. This can't be happening to him. He didn't feel insane. He just felt confused.
"No, I'm fine. Doc, you have to believe me. Nothing is wrong with me!"
Carson patted John's shoulder and then left the room.
John's vision was starting to get fuzzy around the edges. It didn't change much, but the edges stayed fuzzy.
He spent the next few hours yelling and pleading for them to just let him go. There was nothing wrong with him! Then he had an idea. He looked up at the deck and saw Teyla standing there.
"Where's Nikki? I need to talk to her."
She got a saddened look in her eye, but then came down into the room. She stood next to him and rested a hand on his forearm.
"John, Nikki was killed on an off-world mission a week ago. You know that."
He shook his head. "No, that's impossible. Three days ago we got locked in a room together and I asked her out on a date! You're telling me I imagined that?"
Teyla had tears in her eyes, but she quickly blinked them away. "John, listen to me. One week ago, you allowed her to go off-world with Major Lorne's team. They were attacked and Nikki was ambushed. She was killed instantly. They brought her body back and we had a memorial service yesterday. You gave the eulogy. You never asked her out, John. We told you to, but you never did."
He just kept shaking his head. No, this can't be happening. He remembered being locked in that room with her. He remembered opening up to her and kissing her. He had manned up like Ronon had told him to do and he had asked her to have dinner with her. They were having dinner tonight! No, this isn't happening. There had to be some kind of mistake.
The edges of his vision got a little fuzzier. "Teyla, listen to me. Something is really wrong here. I don't know what, but this can't be real…"
He stopped what he was saying. Something had occurred to him. "Wait, one week ago I wasn't even on Atlantis. Lorne didn't go off-world. He was in charge of the base. He wouldn't go on a mission when he was the one in charge of the base. We got back yesterday. Teyla…you were with me! So were Ronon, Elizabeth, Rodney, and Carson. Unless…you're not really Teyla."
Of course! He must be imagining this or there was something had happened to him and some alien was making him believe all of this was real. Hell, an alien had gotten into his head before and tried to make him believe what he was living was real when it was only a virtual reality. No, this was not real life. It couldn't be.
"Like I said John, you're not well. You're not thinking straight. You need to rest."
She started moving away from him. He watched as she left the room. What the hell was going on.
He vision was getting fuzzier and fuzzier until everything went black.
sgasgasgasgasga
Nikki walked up to Carson. "Is he going to be alright, Dr.?" She turned and looked at John's still form laying on one of the infirmary beds.
"I think so. He did excellent in surgery, but he's not out of the woods just yet. There was a lot of swelling in his brain due to the head injury he sustained so I had to put him into a medically induced coma for now." She nodded and looked at his teammates who were spread around the infirmary. They had all insisted that they stay and wait for any news about the Colonel. None of them wanted to leave their friend in such a critical condition.
Elizabeth looked over at Carson. "I have a silly question. Can…can he dream while he's in there?" Carson looked over at his friend lying motionless on the bed.
"No one really knows for sure. Although, I have heard cases where someone who was taken out of a medically induced coma talked about things that happened to him while he was under. I suppose it may be true. The mind is such a mystery that it's almost impossible to know for sure. There is a chance that he is dreaming or having something similar to a dream. I've been slowly reducing the chemicals that are keeping him in the coma. He may wake up soon or in the next couple of days. You can ask him yourself then."
Elizabeth nodded and turned to Teyla.
She hadn't wanted to get the entire story from the team until they had all had a chance to recover. She couldn't wait until John came out of his coma, but the others had been released from the infirmary yesterday and were all back to keep an eye on their friend.
"Teyla, tell me what happened."
Teyla looked up at Dr. Weir and she sighed. "We went on an off-world mission the day after we arrived back on Atlantis, as you know…"
They stepped through the stargate and found themselves standing in the middle of a forest. There was a path leading to what looked from afar to be a small village. "Well, it doesn't look like it's too far away. Let's get walking. McKay, stay behind me. Teyla, Ronon, you take the six."
They nodded and walked in formation towards the village. It was only about a ten minute walk to the edge. They walked through finding no one around. "Teyla, you said you'd traded with these people before? Where are they?"
Teyla looked around. "I do not know, Colonel. Every time I have been here, this place has been busy and filled with people. I do not understand where everyone is. Unless they have been culled since then…"
"Well isn't that a pleasant thought." He scanned the area and turned to Rodney. "Are there any readings on the Life Signs Detector?"
Rodney pulled it out of his vest and tapped a couple buttons. "I'm reading about ten life signs..that way." He pointed north of their location. "Okay, let's go check it out. Maybe they know what happened here and can give us some answers. Same formation."
They walked for half an hour towards the readings where the life signs were. Rodney stopped. "They're right in front of…whoah. They're surround us. Colonel, I think this is a trap."
"Agreed. Keep your eyes open! We're going back to the gate." Before they could move, they were being fired at. They returned fire and ran in the opposite direction. They managed not to get hit, but they were being chased through the forest. John took the rear since all of them were behind them. Teyla took lead to get them back to the gate since she had a really good sense of direction.
They were almost back to the gate when they heard more gunshots and then John cry out in pain. He hit the ground and Ronon stopped and went back for him. He grabbed the loop on the back of his tact vest and starting firing towards the men chasing them, dragging Sheppard with him as he ran to catch up with Teyla and McKay.
Sheppard was hit one more time on the way back to the gate. McKay quickly dialed the gate, sent in his idc and they made it through. After the gate shut down, they realized that John was unconscious. Teyla felt for a pulse and found one, but it was weak and getting weaker.
That's when they noticed the head wound on the back of his head that was spreading blood on the floor. He also had a bullet wound on his chest and another on his leg. He was in really bad shape.
They vaguely heard someone call for a med team. They were too busy trying to stop the bleeding before he bled out. The others had minor injuries compared to Sheppard's.
Ronon had been shot in the side, Teyla had a graze mark on her neck along with a twisted ankle, and Rodney had been shot in the arm. They were all very lucky, except for Sheppard.
Teyla sighed when she finished her recollection of what had happened. She didn't want to think about it anymore. John had put himself in danger to watch their backs and it had almost gotten him killed.
He had been unconscious for three days now. They had all been in the infirmary with him until yesterday when they were all released.
Ronon stood up and kicked his chair. "This is wrong. It should be me laying there, not him. He was in the lead, but he switched places with Teyla to watch our backs and make sure we got through the gate. I should've been watching his."
Nikki sat down in one of the chairs and put her head in her hands. She had been sick with worry ever since she had watched them drag John through the gate. Instantly she knew something was seriously wrong.
Teyla looked up at Ronon. "Ronon, it is not your fault. He gave us orders and we followed them. He got us home and he is still alive. There is still hope."
"Aye, there is definitely hope." Carson walked over to the machines that were attached to John. They had started making noises. "He'll be waking up soon. I'd say there is more than hope."
sgasgasgasgasga
John could hear people talking quietly around him. He pried open his eyes and saw that he was in the infirmary. His team was sitting in different spots near his bed on one side. Lorne and Elizabeth were talking to Carson on the other side of the infirmary and Nikki was sitting right next to the left side of his bed. She was resting her head on his arm he could feel her hand in his.
What the hell was going on? How many times do I have to say that in one day, he thought to himself.
One minute he was strapped down in the isolation room having people tell him that he was sick and that Nikki was dead. And now he was laying in the infirmary surrounded by everyone he cared for and Nikki was very much alive. He was definitely missing something.
Everyone was asleep except Lorne, Elizabeth and Beckett. He looked over at them.
"What the hell is going on?" They turned and looked at him. Carson walked over to the right side of the bed and checked his vitals. He looked down at John and smiled. "How are you feeling, Colonel?"
"Very confused." Carson raised an eyebrow at him. "What's the last thing you remember?"
John thought for a moment. Was he really going crazy? "Well, I was being chased through Atlantis because everyone thought I was going nuts. Then I was strapped in the isolation room. You told me I had some disease that was causing me to go crazy and then Teyla told me Nikki was dead. Which didn't make any sense. My vision kept getting fuzzy and then it went black. Then I woke up here. So what the hell is going on?"
Elizabeth looked at Carson. "It looks like your hunch was right. That must have been some kind of dream he was having."
John sat up slightly, careful not to move the arm that Nikki was resting on. "Wait a minute. You're telling me all of that was just a dream?"
"Aye, I guess it was because that's not what happened to you. You're saying you don't remember the mission you went on with your team?"
He looked over at this team and noticed for the first time that Teyla had a bandage on the side of her neck and her ankle was wrapped and Rodney had his arm in a sling. He turned and looked back at Beckett.
"What mission? The last normal thing I remember was yesterday when Nikki and I got locked in a room together because of a power failure."
Lorne stepped to the end of the bed. "Sir, what else happened that day?"
He looked at his second in command. "That's the day we got back from Earth. I took a jumper ride with Nikki to test out the recently repaired jumper. Then we went to the mess hall and had lunch. Rodney recruited us both to go fix a power failure and it ended up locking us in there for awhile. And then…everyone started acting weird the next day."
"Sir, that wasn't yesterday. That was four days ago."
Elizabeth looked at John. "John, you went on an off-world mission with your team the day after we got back from Earth. You went to a village that had been deserted, but Rodney picked up life signs north of your location, so you went to check it out. You were attacked and tried to make it back to the gate. You had Teyla switch positions with you and you took up the rear. You were shot in the leg and fell. You hit your head on something which knocked you out. Ronon dragged you back to the gate, but not before you were shot again in the chest. They managed to get back, but you lost a lot of blood. Dr. Beckett had to put you in a medically induced coma because of the swelling in your brain. You've been unconscious for three days. Your team was released from the infirmary yesterday, but you know them. They didn't want to leave your side. And neither did Nikki."
He took a couple of minutes to wrap his mind around everything. So he really had been imagining everything that had happened to him. Nikki wasn't dead, he wasn't strapped to a bed, and his friends hadn't turned on him. Wow.
He turned and looked at all of his friends sleeping around him. He had been living in hell in his mind for the past twenty-four hours, but they had been by his side for three days worrying about him.
He turned and looked at Carson. "So, I dreamed all of that up? None of that was real?"
"Aye. It was your brain's way of remaining active while in a coma."
John snorted and rolled his eyes. "Some way of remaining active. More like creating it's very own version of hell."
Lorne chuckled, "It's good to have you back, sir." John met Evan's eyes. "It's good to be back. It's definitely better than what I thought was real not that long ago." Lorne chuckled again before dismissing himself saying he had some paperwork to catch up on. John almost laughed at that.
Everything was fine. His friends, his…family, were all around him waiting to hear some good news about him. He wasn't going insane and the women he finally had gotten up the nerve to ask on a date wasn't dead.
Everything was back to normal. Well, as normal as it gets in the Pegasus galaxy.
So..do you still hate me? Hah! Tell me what you think! Review, please and thank you! Also, I need ideas for the next chapter!