Author's Note: I don't write flash fiction much anymore but this needed to be put down on paper. It probably leaves more questions than answers and I might expand on this story idea at a later time, but for now, please enjoy!
Also, if anyone has a way to troubleshoot why seems to be hiding this story, please send me a PM. I've gotten a few messages now that people have clicked on the link to read this story and it gives them an error. It's confusing because I've gotten a couple reviews from my regular readers so it's being shown to some people and not others ...
They found him in the bowels of the ship, right where they had been told they would find him.
He was bound to a great metal chair, with tubes and wires snaking down his arms, and a strap around his head to keep it in place at the back of the chair. A metal halo one meter in diameter hummed and glowed softly, suspended above the chair. His eyes were closed, his lips cracked and bleeding, and he was so still their hearts plummeted. But then his eyes snapped open — dark and unseeing — and they could see the faint tremble of exhausted limbs as they rushed forward.
Ronon tore off the restraints first as Teyla worked at the wires and tubes. McKay flew to the console next to him to download as much information as he could.
They did not have much time.
And as Ronon and Teyla finally began to pull him from the chair, he cried out, twisting and thrashing against them.
"Sheppard, it's us!" Ronon shouted.
But the man did not seem to hear him, locked in the world of pain the machine had built around him.
Keller laid a soft hand on Sheppard's bruised arm before turning to Woolsey and the others.
"He was severely dehydrated," she started. "And there are so many drugs pumped into his system I'm going to have a hell of a time sorting out if there's anything there we are familiar with. My guess is hallucinogens and a cocktail of things to keep him out."
"Will he recover?" Woolsey asked.
Keller shrugged. "It's hard to say. When he was brought back he was … like a wild animal, sir." She glanced briefly at McKay's black eye, and Teyla unconsciously rubbed a sore shoulder. "But if we can flush the drugs out he should be able to make a full recovery."
"I can't make heads nor tails of the chair they had him hooked up to," McKay added. "I don't know if it was some sort of torture device, or a way to extract information, or something else. Whatever it was, they must not have gotten what they wanted since they let us take him back."
"Or maybe they did get what they wanted. He was gone three days," Woolsey said. "We need to find out what happened and why they took him."
Keller looked down at Sheppard, blessedly unconscious. "I'm not sure if we will be finding out anytime soon."
They took him when he was alone, flying the 'jumper back to the space gate. There were no demands, no communications. The 'jumper was merely sucked into the great ship, the door was forced open, and the human-like forms, their faces covered, had entered and dragged him out.
When they refused to speak to him, he decided to fight. Kicking and struggling, all his efforts seemed useless as they dragged him down the long, winding corridors and finally to the room with the chair.
There were still no words spoken as he demanded to know what they wanted. He felt a brief moment of claustrophobia when they pressed his head to the back of the chair and strapped it in place. He could not move. He could only look straight ahead.
He felt the prick of needles being inserted into veins along his arms, and a warm rush throughout his body. Then there was a hum, a halo of light descended from the ceiling, and his nerves lit on fire as his mind was torn open.
There was really nothing left to do but scream.
Rodney had been dozing at Sheppard's side, his laptop open to the latest reports from the science team. Ronon was snoring in a corner, his boots up on Sheppard's bed, when Sheppard suddenly twitched in unconsciousness, then threw his hands up to his head, pulling and twisting at his hair, making the rakish mess even more wild than before.
McKay was startled awake, his laptop crashing to the ground as Sheppard tumbled off the bed, panting desperately and scrabbling at the scrubs he was wearing, ripping out IVs and monitors. Alarms began screeching as Ronon sprang to his feet.
Sheppard was up in a flash, crashing into the bedside medical cart, sending it to the floor. Sparks flew as the monitor cracked, and Sheppard didn't stop, throwing himself into the side of the bed, then McKay's chair, crashing to his knees then surging up again, his movements erratic, his eyes wild and unseeing as he alternately tore at his head and then his scrubs, as though something was crawling all over him and he was trying to get it off.
"John!" McKay shouted, trying to snap him out of wherever he thought he was.
The man didn't stop. Medical aides rushed into the room followed closely by Keller. Sheppard bolted, and Ronon stepped in his way. Merely lowering one shoulder, Sheppard was clearly intent on tackling the Satedan, so Ronon adjusted, stepping to one side and using Sheppard's momentum to slam him up against the wall, grabbing one of the man's arms and pressing his other forearm across Sheppard's chest to keep him in place.
With his face this close to Sheppard's, Ronon could see the wild, unseeing, animal look in the man's eyes up close. He truly had no idea where he was or what was going on.
"Sheppard!" Ronon growled, his face inches from the Colonel's as he shook the man.
And slowly, the dark eyes slid from wild and unseeing to clear and confused.
"Ronon?" Sheppard's voice was hoarse and soft.
Ronon nodded. "You with me, buddy?"
Sheppard's eyes slid shut as his body finally relaxed, his knees giving way beneath him. Ronon went down with him to the ground, not wanting to let up his grip in case Sheppard decided to go crazy again.
"Oh God …" Sheppard whispered faintly. His dark head tilted forward, his shoulders heaving.
Ronon slowly released him, aware of McKay, Keller, and the aides hovering over his shoulder. There was a swish of fabric and he knew Teyla had also entered the room. He waved them back.
"You're home," Ronon said.
Sheppard started shaking, trembling as if he were freezing as sweat broke out on his forehead.
"How long?" he asked.
"They had you three days," Ronon replied softly.
Sheppard leaned his head back against the wall. The lines of pain in his face were beginning to ease, but he did not open his eyes.
"Colonel Sheppard," Keller knelt down next to Ronon. "Can we help you get back to bed?"
Sheppard gave no sign that he had heard her, but at her soft commands, the aides gently helped him to his feet and back into the bed where things had been hastily re-arranged, trays righted, and a new monitor brought back in.
After several moments of activity where Keller made sure everything was set up as it should be, she left Sheppard alone with Ronon, Teyla, and McKay.
They sat in silence, only stirring when Sheppard finally opened his eyes and said softly, "I knew you'd come."
Teyla reached forward and gripped his bruised hand gently. "Of course we would come for you."
He gave them a faint smile, then closed his eyes again.
As if there were ever any doubt.