Chapter 10: The Base

He only had a vague memory of Byrne showing up. The one man, Sheppard, had appeared several times and had done a good job at getting everyone to step back.

And once the needles were off the table, it was a little easier to trust that he wasn't just going to get shoved into another dark hole. That they had tracked down Byrne was a definite point in their favor. Whoever they were here, they were nothing like Stadler.

Alex sat up in the bed and tucked his legs close to his chest, watching what little he could see from behind his curtain. It was an infirmary of some sort, though not as busy and bustling as one found in an actual medical clinic. The walls had the same drab gray concrete as his holding cell, so he suspected it was all the same set of buildings.

A military base somewhere?

All the insignia he had seen so far were US military.

Someone in scrubs peeked through the edge of the curtain, looking startled for a moment that he was up and awake. They turned away before Alex could say or do anything, but he heard them calling for a Dr. Lam.

Dr. Lam.

Sheppard, who was another Colonel, had mentioned them before. The one who had given him medicine.

Maybe not too dangerous then.

Alex tucked his knees closer to his chest, still wearing one of the blankets like a cape. He didn't feel as awful now. His skin still itched and felt stretched tight, but the all-consuming pain was gone. The headache was more or less gone too, with only a few twinges here and there.

"Knock, knock," there was a lady in a white coat stood just at the edge of the curtain, watching him with a careful glance. As if she were afraid he would try to run away. Maybe he had… "I'm Dr. Lam. Would it be alright with you if I gave you a quick check over?"

Alex swallowed down his unease – Byrne was here somewhere – and nodded.

She came over, checked his pulse, comparing it to a monitor beside the bed, before flashing a penlight in his eyes. He pulled away at that, but that seemed to be what she was looking for.

She stood back and put her hands on her hips. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." His throat was dry. He could do with some more water. But other than that, he actually felt alive now.

"Hmm…" She pulled up the chair next to his bed, and held out her hand expectantly.

Alex just stared at it, unsure what, exactly, she wanted.

"Can I take a look at your wrist?"

Alex glanced down, then remembered that he had scraped up his wrist pretty good getting out of the handcuffs. He had vague memories of Sheppard wrapping it up. Instead of responding, he just held out his wrist.

She carefully picked apart the bandaging, unwinding it in a few careful swoops. Some of it caught and stuck to the wounds underneath, but she didn't go ripping it off, just slowly worked it free.

Alex grimaced at the sight below; scrapped, red, bruised, and definitely swollen. Even his thumb felt hard to move on that hand.

"You're lucky they didn't have it any tighter," the doctor said, carefully prodding at his fingers and working her way down his hand to his wrist. "No permanent damage though, it seems. You'll probably have bruising and swelling for a couple of days." Her lips quirked in a smile. "Maybe stay away from handcuffs for a bit."

That she was attempting to joke with him, put him at ease, went a long way into reassuring Alex that they weren't just going to make him disappear. He might've forcefully stumbled into something top secret – because, hello, all the code words Stadler had been throwing around – but that didn't mean a life sentence.

"I'm assuming you're still declining any blood tests or IV treatments?"

"Fuck, no." The thought made him queasy.

"Okay, okay." She held up her hands placatingly. "I had to ask. Will you take a couple more pills though? It will help with the swelling."

And probably everything else.

But it could also be poison.

Fuck.

He didn't need his paranoid brain to chime in at this point.

The little orange pills had helped. Had made it so he felt like he could breathe again.

He just had to… trust them. Again.

"Okay." The word very nearly stuck in his throat. "And water?"

In rather short order, Dr. Lam had Alex dosed, re-bandaged, and up walking around the infirmary. He had a constant shadow, but getting up and moving helped him feel even more alive.

He got a better look at the patches on the uniforms – still air force – but this particular individual had a patch that proclaimed SG-12.

Maybe it was like the SAS unit designations. Though he didn't remember seeing those in the uniform…

"Oh, look! Our little problem child is up and about."

Alex spun halfway through his circuit to stare at the man that had come in the main door. By the way the guy next to him stiffened to attention, this was someone important.

"Oh, don't mind me." He said, waving his hands. "Just coming to bug Dr. Lam. Though I am supposed to reassure you that Joe will be by later. He's a little busy doing some clean up from yesterday's mess."

Alex just blinked at the man, not quite sure what to make of him. At least it was more confirmation that his memories of seeing Byrne weren't just a fever dream.

"Dr. Lam! Just the person I wanted to see."

"General…" Dr. Lam approached looking wary.

"Say, what do I have to do to bust the kid out of here?" He jerked a thumb in Alex's direction, looking decidedly un-General-y.

"Are you sure about that?" She glanced at Alex who had stopped his pacing. "Seems pretty stir crazy to let loose on the base."

"Kid needs food, doctor."

"Which we are perfectly capable of providing."

"And keeping him inside the same four walls isn't going to reinforce how he is not a prisoner here."

She huffed, but nodded. "We just need a scan to clear him officially. Jamison already cleared him unofficially."

Alex took a step back. Scans had not been discussed. Though it was notably better than someone injecting him with something, lying still in a cold dark chamber was very low on his list of things he wanted to do. Never mind whether he could actually tolerate it.

Him and small spaces hadn't gotten alone very well in the past two years.

"You got those handhold thingamajigs, right." The general glanced around the room, as if expecting one – whatever it was – to pop into existence. "Did no one want to get them out of storage?"

Dr. Lam blew out a long breath. "General those haven't been used in well over a year and an MRI is gold stand—"

"Not this time, doctor." He turned and gave Alex a thorough once over. "Major Davis will find a base uniform for you – don't want you to stand out too much. Once Dr. Lam gets her scan, Airman Patrick will show you where the mess is. He'll stick with you, but that's for your own protection. Not the safest place to go wandering."

Alex just nodded along. It didn't seem like he was getting much of a choice in the process, but he wouldn't complain about getting out of the infirmary. And blending in, even if he had a shadow, was probably for the best.

He just wondered if he was ever going to get any answers.

He could've done with some pockets, but at least the uniform had long sleeves. It wasn't wildly out of size for him either, though he had had to cinch the belt tighter than it usually went.

He wouldn't quite kill for his own clothes, but… It was better than whatever the interim kidnappers had dressed him in.

The scan had taken all of ten seconds and was just some wand light thingy waved over the front and back of his neck. The airman performing the duty had a suspiciously blank face and even Dr. Lam hadn't been very forthcoming about what exactly, they were doing. But it hadn't once touched his skin, so he wasn't too fussed.

Walking through the halls of the base just reinforced his mental image of a bunker. There hadn't been any windows anywhere that he had seen. Everything was the same exposed concrete block, with pipes visible running along the ceiling. Not new construction by any means.

It also matched his vague memories of when he held a knife to that one person's throat. Sheppard.

It was good thing Sheppard apparently didn't hold grudges.

The airman led the way through the halls, never going further away than arm's length. Once, he had even pulled Alex out of the way of a swinging open door, then immediately dropped his arm like he had touched a hot poker.

It made Alex wonder just what sort of stories about him were already circling the base.

After taking an elevator – that quickly emptied out as soon as they appeared – to the 22nd floor, it was just a short jaunt to the mess.

Alex stubbornly made eye contact with the few that dared to stare in his direction, but the room wasn't overly crowded. Probably a strategic move.

"Grab a tray," the airman said – and Alex really should probably brother to learn the man's name. "Any allergies?"

Alex shook his head. He wasn't quite sure where his voice had gone, but for now it seemed safer to say as little as possible. After all, despite what the general said, he was still more or less a prisoner here.

"Can you lift with your wrist?"

Alex glanced down, looking at his bandaged wrist. "It's fine."

That seemed to be answer enough, because he prodded Alex into the line in front of him. Alex grabbed a tray full of food – breakfast items seemed to suggest that it was still morning – and was surprised to find that he was actually hungry. He still didn't feel 100%, but it was certainly better than the day before. And however long before the rest of it had been.

There was no telling how long he had actually been missing…

They made their way to a table, Alex with his back pressed against the wall to keep a wary eye on the rest of the room's occupants. There was a surprising number of civilian looking people – some with military jackets, but distinctly civilian dress clothes underneath. There were two variations on the military uniform as well – blue vs green – and it seemed they separated themselves out that way with the blues sticking together and the greens together, with some obvious civilians thrown in for variety.

It was unlike any military base he had been to, but then he was pretty sure that Brecon Brecons wasn't a very good baseline.

The fruit loops were surprisingly good too.

But then, he might be biased, because he wasn't actually sure when he had last eaten. It could've been days.

He glanced across the table at his guard. "What day is it?"

He looked a little surprised that Alex was voluntarily speaking to him. "Thursday morning."

Which, fuck. It had been four days.

Four days since he had decided to go out running in a park. He had missed all his classes for the week too. Explaining that to the professors was probably going to be the hardest thing, because he had a sinking feeling that quite the cover story was going to be implemented. There was no telling if he would actually get the true story.

He rested his cheek on his palm and continued spooning fruit loops into his mouth.

It was quite possible that the life he had worked so hard to build was going to crumble right out from underneath him. All because his past kept circling around and screwing up his life.

After one final check over in the infirmary and one last dose of medication, the airman led him back through the maze of halls into a large conference room. There was space for at least a dozen people, but Alex sincerely hoped that there wouldn't be that many people involved.

He had gotten the impression that whatever he had stumbled into had thrown up quite a few issues though. Issues that reached far beyond his initial kidnapping.

The airman waved him into one of the chairs, before taking up a position against the wall. "The general will be along shortly."

Alex let his fingers drum against the table.

The waiting game.

It was all a little bit too familiar. Set his teeth on edge.

Blunt had liked to leave him waiting.

Contemplating his fate.

This was different though.

It had to be.

"Thank you, airman."

Alex glanced up and couldn't help the sigh of relief at seeing Joe Byrne coming through the door. He was followed by the general from earlier, but that wasn't important.

"We'll take it from here." The general said, dismissing the airman. "Make sure to let Sheppard in, though."

The lieutenant saluted quickly, before exiting the room.

Byrne settled across the table from Alex. "How are you feeling?"

Alex shrugged. "Better than before."

"Good, good…" He looked slightly nervous, which only served to set off Alex's own alarm bells. "I was worried we had lost you for good there."

Fuck.

Alex grimaced at that, because it just confirmed his suspicions that something much worse than his usual stalkers had been involved. None of the usual sources had pinged an alarm. "No one we knew?" He asked.

Byrne shook his head. "This was a much different source, but I suspect they heard rumors about you from their friends. You got very lucky."

Alex wasn't sure he considered getting shot by those electric thingy's multiple times lucky. But, on the other hand, he was still alive and apparently safe.

"Alex, this is General O'Neill," Byrne waved his hand at his companion. "He works out of the Pentagon, but was called in to assist when you were located here. I've known him for quite a few years, so believe me when I say he's a good man. He knows more about the group that captured you than I do, and I filled him in on some of your background."

Alex fought to keep his face blank, because he didn't particularly like his secrets being thrown around. That said, it did mean that he didn't have to beat around the bush about anything. It was much less likely that anyone would ask awkward questions…

"He has some theories on why you might have been targeted, but we need to know what happened at first, from your perspective." Byrne settled back in his chair, opening a paper pad in front of him. "There are a lot of questions, and I don't expect you'll be able to answer all of them, but hopefully we can at least create a full picture."

And if it started toward answering any of his questions… Alex wasn't going to complain.

A/N: And the story beings to unfold. For those of you unfamiliar with Stargate, hopefully you've got a bit of an idea what the base is like now. Next few chapters will go back and forth in POV (hopefully).