"So you're telling me, Colonel Sheppard spends one night on earth, in his brother's house and manages to get himself kidnapped?" General O'Neill pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a migraine oncoming.
"Yes General, that's pretty much it.", Mitchell confirmed.
"How could this happen again?" O'Neill sat down with a resigned huff.
"Your guess is as good as mine. David Sheppard's distraught housekeeper called the police this morning, that the place is a mess and her employer and his brother are missing. When the local police found out about our Sheppard, they gave us a call, well obviously not us, they called Peterson of course. A forensic team is on the way as we speak."
O'Neill let out a big sigh. "What a mess!" He paused… "How long until the Odyssey will be back in orbit?"
"A week. Give or take." It was one of the first things Mitchell had checked.
"And I take it the Daedalus is already gone?" O'Neill lifted an eyebrow, already knowing the answer.
"Yep, she left on schedule.", Mitchell confirmed.
"And there's no other way to find his subcutaneous transmitter?" Jack had to ask, although he knew as well as everyone else, there wasn't.
"No, sir." Mitchell thought that Sheppard really had bad timing.
"Damn it. I guess that means we'll have to find him the old-fashioned way."
A few hours later, SG-1 had gathered in the big conference room to have a look at all the data. They went through all the videos and photos of the crime scene. The luxurious place was a mess. Close-ups showed overturned furniture, smashed pieces of decoration and even a hole in one wall.
"Looks like he put up one hell of a fight.", Mitchell remarked. He got affirmative nods in response.
Unfortunately, the team had found nothing of value and not a single lead to go on. This wasn't a robbery gone wrong. The thugs had taken exactly what - or rather whom - they wanted.
And after a few hours brooding over the evidence, they had to admit, that they were not even an inch closer to finding the Sheppard brothers.
John woke with a start, feeling dizzy and disoriented. He had lost all sense of time and didn't know how long he'd been out. Though he was pretty sure they were still on earth, he had no idea where.
Groaning, he got up onto his elbows and looked around. He was in a dimly lit, dank cell, with concrete walls, a barred section and a heavy wooden door. Charming.
Sheppard could feel the cold floor at his feet and realized with a start, that his boots were gone. No. That didn't sound right. He tried to remember. Oh, he hadn't worn boots, or shoes, because he had been asleep at Dave's house. Damn! Where was Dave? The details of their abduction suddenly surged back.
He had returned to his brother's house after they'd dealt with the replicator. After his brother had let him in, they went to the living room where John had lifted an eyebrow at the half-empty carafe of scotch.
Dave shrugged and looked John up and down. "I guess we both had a rough day." He got another glass and poured them both a generous amount of the amber liquid.
When he handed John his glass, he offered: "Why don't you stay the night? Then we can talk about the will tomorrow. To be honest, I don't know if I'm up to it tonight."
They were both beat. Sniffing appreciatively at the Scotch, John made a spur of the moment decision and accepted Daves offer to crash for the night. He wouldn't return to Atlantis until the next scheduled wormhole in a few days, so he had plenty of time. And Dave's mattresses beat the ones at the SGC any time.
John had notified the SGC of his change of plans and they had spent the rest of the evening reminiscing.
But obviously, John had been naive to assume earth would be safe. Even worse, he had allowed himself to be lulled by the familiar surroundings of his childhood home. And, admittedly, he had started to feel a bone-deep exhaustion from the events of previous days, the lack of sleep and the brutal fight with the replicator.
He had slept like a rock until several black clad figures had grabbed him and dragged him from the bedroom and down the stairs. He definitely had gotten in a few good blows, but in the end, there were too many of them and he had been knocked out.
Focusing on his current predicament, John carefully took stock. His neck still hurt. So did his back. His head was a new one, probably from the fight during the abduction. His leg hurt, too. Oh, yeah. They'd shot him. For a second, he squinted at the wound. It was hard to tell in the poor light and with his black sweats but it seemed the wound bled only sluggishly. He'd live.
He made an attempt to stand, but failed as his leg gave out under him. Great. He needed to be able to walk if they wanted to escape.
John needed to check out the door, but he also wanted to know what was on the other side of the bars. He resorted to crawling on his hands and knees to get to the bars and take a look into the dimly lit space behind them. There was another cell like his own. His heart sank, when he saw the crumpled form lying in the middle of the dirty floor. He cursed under his breath. They'd taken his brother, too.
"Dave!" he whispered urgently. "Dave! Wake up."
With a groan the prone form started to move. Dave lifted his head and looked around aimlessly, until his gaze found John.
"John? Where are we?" And after a slight pause, "What did you do?"
"What did I do? Why would you assume I have done anything?" John felt anger creeping up his chest.
"Because it's always been like this. You did something stupid and dragged me into it." Dave did his finger-pointing-thing.
"That's neither true nor exactly fair!", John sighed.
Finally taking in John's disheveled appearance, Dave gasped. "Good God, John. You look like you've been in a brawl!"
"I guess that happens when you get abducted." John replied pointedly.
"I guess…", Dave mumbled sheepishly.
John wanted to say more, but he was interrupted by heavy boots coming their way. He heard a bolt sliding back and a moment later, Dave's door was pushed open. Gritting his teeth, John grabbed the bars and pulled himself up into a standing position. Dave scrambled to get up and face whomever had entered. Despite his silk pajamas, he straightened up, schooled his expression and suddenly appeared all business.
But the middle-aged man ignored him and turned to John instead.
"Colonel Sheppard, long time no see." The man gave him a wicked smile and John immediately had to think of Gru.
But he didn't recognize the man. "Have we met?"
"Colonel? Is that true? You got promoted?" Dave was dumbfounded.
"Yep. Lt. Colonel, to be exact.", John corrected.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Dave sounded genuinely hurt.
"That's really cute. But we have more important matters to discuss than your family reunion." Gru looked grimly at John. "And no, we haven't met directly."
"You extracted a special operations team from Baghdad in 2002. I need to know what their mission was. And of course, their names.", he got straight to the point.
"Wait! This is about Watapur?", John asked incredulously.
He shook his head in disbelief. He was stationed in one of the most secret bases in two galaxies and those guys interrogated him about an extraction in some Afghan Valley six years ago!
"It has been years! I don't remember.", he claimed.
"Don't insult me! I'm not stupid and I don't believe you. So tell me!" The guy seemed to talk himself into a rage.
John shrugged nonchalantly. "No can do."
Gru took a step towards Dave. "Tell me or it'll get ugly. I'll have to hurt your brother here."
Two of his minions eagerly stepped forward and took David's arms. Dave struggled, but the two men only grabbed his arms tighter.
"So it IS your fault I'm here." Dave's tone held a note of bitterness as he looked at John.
When Gru stepped even closer, Dave's look became pleading. "Just tell him."
"I'm sorry Dave. I really am. But I can't." John didn't know how he could make his brother understand his dilemma.
"There are lives at stake.", he added.
"Yeah, like mine!" Dave said in the same staged hurt voice that John had hated as a kid.
"I mean, both our lives.", Dave corrected himself.
He turned back to their abductor. "Look, I can pay you a handsome ransom if you let us go."
But the man just laughed. "I don't want your money."
"I want the names of the men who destroyed my family! And I want them to suffer. And until you give me their names, I'll start with you." And he proceeded to punch Dave hard in the face.
"You bastards!" John grabbed the bars so hard that his knuckles turned white. "He has nothing to do with all of this!"
"Neither did my family!", the man remarked, before driving a fist into Daves gut, evoking a groan.
"Look, I wasn't there! I don't know what happened! I just flew the chopper!", John tried to reason.
"I know. I got my hands on the flight log, but yours was the only name I could find out. So I need you to tell me who was on that chopper. And you will. Eventually." And again, he hit David. "Or I'll make your brother suffer."
"Please! He has nothing to do with this!" Normally, John wasn't one to beg. But this was his brother. He hadn't signed up for this. It hurt him deeply to see Dave suffer. But even if he gave up the names, they probably wouldn't stop and let them go. And there would be no reason to keep them alive.
"Do what you want to me. But leave him out of this! I'm the one you want, not him!", he tried again.
"You can always stop this, Colonel.", Gru stated smugly.
"So can you.", John replied, although he knew, they never would.
When Dave lay unmoving and unconscious on the floor, the men left his cell. John shouted some obscenities after them.
It took him a moment to realize that their steps had stopped again in front of his own cell door. So he straightened up as much as possible. He was ready for them, when the wooden door creaked open.
"Now let's see how much you can take." Gru looked like he would enjoy every minute.
They came at him fast and as much as John tried to get a few hits in, there were too many of them. When one minion directly hit his already bruised sternum, he went down hard, gasping for air. He had no other choice than to curl up on the floor, just taking the vicious kicks to his legs and torso.
John had managed to stay quiet apart from a few groans and moans so not to give Gru the satisfaction. But then a kick to the wound on his leg made him scream in agony. Slowly, the edges of his sight became fuzzy and he blacked out.
When they left him, he was only semi-conscious. John tried to roll over, but his limbs didn't obey. So he decided to just lie there and catch his breath for a moment.
A few minutes later, he tried again and managed to sit up slowly and painfully. The bruises kept adding up. He probably could count himself lucky, he didn't have any broken bones. Yet, he reminded himself.
John was hurting, and the gunshot wound didn't exactly help, but it was manageable. Getting up took a while, but this time he made it. When he was finally standing, he saw a small bottle of water sitting near the door. He limbed the few steps and bend slowly down to get the water. Sudden dizziness let him put out his hand and support himself against the wall.
Then he eyed the water. It looked untampered with. But did it even matter? He needed hydration. With a sigh, he screwed off the top and took a sip. It tasted normal, so he took a few more sips.
Then he closed the top and took the water to the bared-off section. Dave would need a drink, too. But when John looked into the other cell, he didn't only see a decent sized bottle of water, but also a prepacked sandwich.
So they were already playing favorites, he thought wearily. He sighed. As long as his brother was the golden boy, he was fine with it. Not to begrudge him for a few extras was the least he could do. He could go without food for a while. It was his fault they were here, after all.
With nothing else to do, John settled down next to the bars to keep an eye on Dave who had still to wake up. He took his time drinking his water, while his mind circled around an op many years ago.
Of course, he remembered the spec op team. A few of them were even buddies. But he would never betray them. Not even for Dave.
They would have to escape or sit it out. But he knew his timing was terrible. Neither the Daedalus nor the Odyssey were available right now. They were both on missions lightyears away. And the brass wouldn't mess up the schedule for one single man. That meant rescue would at least take a few days. So they had to survive for a week. He would have to try and stall.
A bit later, David started to stir. Groaning, he slowly sat up.
"Dave? How do you feel?", John asked softly.
"Oh, great! Just great!" Indistinct murmuring turned into ranting. "I was abducted and beaten half to death, because you screwed up. It's your fault, were here. But they're hurting me. As usual."
John opened his mouth to object, like he would with McKay, but then thought better of it. Dave was right, after all.
"Dave. Listen. My team will come for us and get us out. But they need time to find us. We just have to hold out for a bit, okay?"
"Hold out? While they torture me?" Dave's voice threatened to break and John was once again reminded that while situations like this might be normal for him, this was an extremely traumatic experience for his brother and anything but normal.
"I know, this is hard. Believe me. But you'll get through it!" He tried to sound comforting this time.
"You KNOW how hard this is? Yeah. Right!", Dave asked sarcastically. "Without relevant experience, you have no right to…", but then Dave eyed him suspiciously. "You've been tortured before?"
John just nodded. "Of course you have.", Dave mumbled and dropped the topic.
Instead, Dave noticed the sandwich. He ripped the package open and dug in, but instantly declared: "Oh I hate those!" John rolled his eyes. Now this really reminded him of McKay.