Fic: Remembrance (Gen, PG)
Title: Remembrance
Author: stormylullabye
Recipient: friendshipper
Pairing: Gen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own SGA or any of the characters in this story, I'm just making them do my evil bidding.
Summary: "The team spread out, the formation so familiar John could feel when they were set, and he nodded."
John had been waiting in the Gate Room with Teyla and Ronon for about fifteen minutes when McKay finally showed up. John raised an eyebrow as Rodney finished securing his gear.
"Yes, yes, sorry. Zelenka couldn't figure out a device we found in the new lab last week. He can't really figure anything out without me, actually. I don't know how everything here operates when I'm off-world. Anyway, I'm here now, are we all ready to go?" McKay clapped his hands together and surveyed the team.
"Yeah, McKay, we're ready." John eyed him with a look that said don't be late again, even though he knew that it was a vain attempt, as he told Chuck to dial the gate for M9K-438. Luckily, their mission today was of the explore-establish-relations-possibly-trade kind and not the diplomatic-meeting-very-important-must-be-on-time variety. The wormhole activated, and the team raised their weapons as they walked through.
They emerged from the gate in the middle of a dense forest. There didn't seem to be any clear path through, and the light was low thanks to the interlocking branches high above their heads. John gestured in the general direction of the village they were supposed to be headed towards as he turned to Ronon. "Hey, can you find us a path through this thing?"
"Sure," Ronon replied with a grin as he led the way, blaster poised to fire at any sign of movement.
After about an hour of walking and surprisingly few complaints from McKay, the forest broke, and the team spotted the village up the road.
"We got through that without anything attacking us? Something is going to go horribly wrong out here where we least expect it, I know it," Rodney proclaimed, looking around nervously before checking his life signs detector. "Hm. Okay, well, there are no life signs until the village, so that's good. Although... that's weird."
"Rodney," John warned, keeping his eyes on the road to the village and his hand on his weapon, "you know I hate it when you say that."
"Yeah, well, it is. There're only fifteen or twenty life signs in the village, unless something's wrong with my life signs detector, which is extremely unlikely, since I checked it myself before we left."
"That is odd," Teyla agreed. "This world is called Velara. My people used to trade here often. This village was quite large. Larger than my own used to be, I believe." John noticed her eyebrows draw together and wondered if she had friends on this world in the past.
"Yeah, I've been here too," Ronon added, keeping his blaster trained ahead as his eyes flashed back and forth, constantly looking for danger. "There were about two hundred people in this village, if I counted right, and more living in other settlements across the planet."
John looked at his team, then back to the village, and nodded. "Could be Wraith, then. Everybody stay alert."
John saw Rodney roll his eyes as he gripped his P-90. "Of course it could be Wraith. It could always be the damn Wraith." Rodney grimaced, watching his life signs detector.
"Do you believe we should call for back-up?" Teyla asked.
John considered this for a moment, and then shook his head. "Nah. If we get up there and we see a bigger problem, we'll fall back. If it's only a couple dozen Wraith, I think we're fine, especially since they're probably not expecting us." He smirked and glanced to Ronon, who was looking like his birthday had come early. John chuckled under his breath and began walking towards the village, keeping his eyes open for any potential threats.
The walk took five highly guarded yet uneventful minutes to complete, and then the team was standing at the entrance to the village. "This looks like the set for a bad Western," John observed. Rodney nodded as Teyla and Ronon exchanged a confused glance. John glanced down the dirt path in front of him and gripped his gun tighter as he began to slowly move forward. He could see a small group of figures in what looked to be a courtyard of some sort up ahead. The team moved slowly and quietly towards the center of the village, keeping to the shadows provided by the row of houses along the road.
John heard a growl from behind him at the same time that the group of figures became clear enough that he could tell they were definitely Wraith. He counted sixteen of them before he began moving to the side, into a gap between two of the wooden houses. Ronon kept watch as John turned to Rodney. "Are there any more, other than that group?"
"Not within range of the life signs detector, no. And I'm only getting one energy reading here, which means there's only one ship. I'd guess it's a cruiser. A hive would give off a much higher reading," Rodney replied.
"Why would they stick around, though? It's weird."
"I do not know, John. It does seem odd," Teyla agreed.
"Who cares?" Ronon interjected. "Let's kill them. We can take them down before they even know we're here."
"Well, hold on there, Chewie. Rodney, how likely is it that they have some sort of shield set up so we can't detect other Wraith or energy readings or whatever?" John asked.
"If they did, they would've put themselves under it, or at least their ship. Not even the Wraith are that stupid," Rodney replied, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, well then let's get a little closer and take them out," John answered. Ronon flashed a grin as John made his way around the house, once again leading the team. They crept up past three more houses before John stopped and put his hand up. The team spread out, the formation so familiar John could feel when they were set, and he nodded.
-----
John knows as soon as he wakes that something has gone horribly wrong, as he has to fight his eyes open. When he eventually succeeds, John blinks rapidly against the bright lights shining down on him. He lifts one arm to rub at his eyes and notes that his entire body feels like dead weight, and holy shit does it hurt to try to move. Glancing around at what he can see without turning his head, John breathes a sigh of relief. If he's going to be incapacitated, at least he's safe in the infirmary in Atlantis and not being held captive on some strange planet.
John tries to lift a leg, hoping the dead weight feeling is just residual from sleep, but no, his body still feels like it weighs a ton and definitely still hurts. He hisses at the shock of pain. Suddenly Keller is there, looking down at him with worry and more than a small amount of relief, and was John really that close to dying? He thinks back to the last thing he remembers: the mission on M4X-278, the Genii coming in and firing on them, and damnit why do they keep trusting those guys? He looks up at Keller, intending to ask what went so wrong, but stops when he notices her lips are already moving.
Keller must somehow know and understand John's confusion because her lips stop moving and she moves out of John's line of vision for a moment, before returning with a data pad. She types for a little while and flips the pad around, showing it to John. You were attacked by the Wraith. There was a bomb. You're going to be fine now, but you're bandaged up; that's why you can't hear. Try not to move too much, okay?
John shakes his head minutely. "It was the Genii," he croaks out.
Her forehead crinkles as Keller shakes her head right back at John. She turns around and asks someone he can't see a question and turns back to John, confused. She types into the data pad again. The rest of your team say it was the Wraith. Why do you say it was the Genii?
"They were dressed like Genii. They had guns. Radim was there." John answers, giving his best glare from his position on the bed.
The doctor turns once more to talk to whoever it is that John can't see, presumably someone from his team. She types quickly on the datapad. What planet were you on, John?
"M4X-278," he replies immediately, and gladly notices that talking is starting to hurt less.
If John had been anyone else, he might think that he had gotten the gate address wrong. John knows, though, that he never forgets the gate addresses to planets, not even months after he's visited them, so he's extremely worried by Keller's response. Her eyes widen in surprise, and she turns to talk again, and then she glances back at John with what resembles fear before moving out of John's line of sight.
A moment later, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon enter John's vision, looking concerned. None of their lips are moving, they're all just staring down at him, and if Rodney's not talking then John knows something's up, even if the other man does know that John can't hear him. "What's wrong?"
Teyla's lips move for a moment before she falters and takes the data pad from McKay's hands. We were not on M4X-278 when you were injured, John. That incident was last month, and we all returned to Atlantis unscathed. This mission was on M9K-438. Do you not remember?
John can't think of anything to say to that, so he just shakes his head slowly and looks at his team members. Teyla looks unharmed save a few scratches, McKay has one arm in a sling and some cuts on the other arm, and Ronon has a bandage on his forehead with various other cuts mapped across his skin. John got the worst of it by far, then. He's glad about that, at least. He'd much rather be injured than have to see any of his team in this situation.
Keller comes back over at this point, shooing John's team away from his bed. She's poking and prodding at various bandages around his head and shining lights all over the place. She looks at John then, mouths sorry, and pushes a syringe full of something into John's IV.
-----
John drifts in and out of sleep quite a few times before he wakes up for good. It takes him a minute of glancing around before he realizes that moving his head doesn't hurt, which is a relief. A monitor of some sort beeps next to him and Keller turns in her spot across the infirmary and rushes over when she sees John's eyes open. "You're awake," she says, and John fights the urge to roll his eyes.
"Yeah," he replies. Then, before he can stop himself, he adds, "I can hear you!" even though he had just stopped himself from teasing Keller for stating the obvious.
She smiles. "Yeah, we removed the bandages from your head after your skin healed up enough. You've been in here for a week now, you know."
"A week?" John exclaims.
"Yes, John, a week. You were very badly injured in the blast." Keller's eyebrows draw together in worry. "Do you remember what happened?"
John shakes his head. "No, not yet."
"It might come back with time, it might not. Sometimes people block traumatic events and can never remember them again. We're just glad that you've only lost a month and not much more. I had to put you under the last time to check for brain damage, but I'm happy to report that you're fine." Keller finishes with a smile, then adds, "Are you hungry?"
"Good to hear," John replies weakly. "No, not hungry. Where's my team?"
"Oh, sorry about that. I sort of banned them from coming in here until you woke up. They wouldn't leave until I made them, which was three days after you were last awake. I'll get them for you now, though," Keller explains sheepishly.
"It's not a big deal. Just want to make sure they're all okay and not worrying about me too much."
Less than five minutes later, all three of John's teammates are crowded around John's bed. Rodney is talking at speeds that should be inhuman about some theory on a piece of technology that John is too worn out to follow right now, Teyla has a hand resting on John's shoulder and is smiling down at him, and Ronon has his arms crossed and is standing at the foot of the bed, smiling. John sighs in relief, comforted that everything is back to normal, with the exception of a few scratches just visible on Teyla's skin, Rodney's arm still in a sling, which John will have to remember to find out the severity of later, and a rather large cut on Ronon's forehead that's just beginning to heal.
John stares at this last injury, feeling something twinge in the back of his mind. The cut looks familiar. Sure, Ronon ends up injured a lot, and head wounds are not uncommon to him, but still, that cut on Ronon's head in that spot is something John has seen before, he knows. As he stares, Ronon's smile falters and Teyla's hand tightens on his shoulder. He hears Teyla's concerned tones rising above the constant drone of Rodney's conjectures, but can't discern words.
He realized a split-second too late what the click he heard had been...
Rodney's voice has dropped out of the sounds filtering through John's mind. At least, he thinks it has. It's hard to tell with the buzzing sound growing so loud.
Eyes wide, he turned to run. Teyla and Ronon were already running, but Rodney...
Someone's shaking John now, and Keller's hovering again, shooing his team away from the bed.
The noise was too loud, the dust choking him. He couldn't tell Rodney to run in time...
Again, John looks up and sees Keller's face, and she's saying something but his vision is already starting to cloud over.
The team spread out, the formation so familiar John could feel when they were set, and he nodded. Wraith started dropping to the ground immediately. John counted at least six on the ground before the other Wraith even had a chance to draw their weapons. He smirked and began to slowly advance on the group of Wraith, still firing. Two more down, another, only three left standing.
John took another step forward and distantly registered a clicking sound coming from below his feet. He fired a few more shots - only one Wraith left standing now - and froze. He looked down, realized a split-second too late what the click had been. "Oh, shit." Eyes wide, he turned to run. Teyla and Ronon were already running but Rodney was still standing, firing valiantly at the final Wraith who was the last of their concerns at the moment. The sound of the weapons fire amplified in his ears, the yells coming from Ronon and Teyla echoing around his head. The noise was too loud, the dust choking him. He couldn't tell Rodney to run in time, so he did the only thing he could think to do.
John leaped, tackling Rodney to the ground and covering as much of the other man's body with his own as he could manage. He heard Ronon's yell in the distance right before the blast sounded. John had time to realize how close, too close, the blast was to his body - Rodney's body - before the world went black.
-----
John wakes again in the infirmary. His team must have convinced Keller to let them stay, John won't wonder how, because they're around his bed. He looks to Rodney. "What the hell are land mines doing in Pegasus?" he asks.
"Oh, good morning to you too," Rodney replies sarcastically. "And don't bother apologizing for dislocating my shoulder either, it's fine."
"They have been around for quite a while here, John," Teyla adds, glaring at Rodney for his input. "They are a very rudimentary form of defense, but effective for one who is not expecting it."
"Yeah. Got that," John replies.
"So you did have them on Earth," Ronon adds. "Why didn't you start running sooner? Do they sound different or something?"
"Nah, pretty much the same, actually. I just wasn't thinking about it. Didn't know they existed here." John shrugs and manages to look at least mildly regretful about the situation. "Oh, and Rodney? I'm not sorry. I can't imagine the complaints we would have to endure if you'd ended up like this," John smirks, gesturing to the bandages still in place on one leg.
"Yes, yes. Well, thank you, I suppose."
Keller walks over to John's bedside, noticing for the first time that her patient has woken. "Good morning. You were only out for the night this time." John's glad to hear this, and even more so that he didn't have to ask. "Scared us, though. What happened?"
"He remembers," Ronon supplies.
"Oh, you do?" Keller asks, looking excited. "Well, that's better than I could have even hoped." She nearly bounces as she notes the new information on her data pad. "So, I'd say that barring any more surprises, you should be out of here by the end of the week. You'll have to stay off of active duty for about two weeks after that, just to make sure that the wounds fully heal before you go out again. You were very lucky, Colonel Sheppard. That bomb could have easily removed your leg or killed you, but instead I expect you to make a full recovery."
"Good to hear, doc." John smiles weakly up at her. John requests food for himself and his three team members be brought to the infirmary. One of the newest Marines, Stevens, comes in with the trays and snaps out a salute before turning to leave the infirmary. John smiles around at his team. Teyla and McKay's trays are balanced on his bed, Ronon's is across John's legs, and John's own is resting on his stomach. The infirmary may not have the wonderful views the mess hall has, but one can enjoy mediocre food in great company pretty much anywhere.
Author: stormylullabye
Recipient: friendshipper
Pairing: Gen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own SGA or any of the characters in this story, I'm just making them do my evil bidding.
Summary: "The team spread out, the formation so familiar John could feel when they were set, and he nodded."
John had been waiting in the Gate Room with Teyla and Ronon for about fifteen minutes when McKay finally showed up. John raised an eyebrow as Rodney finished securing his gear.
"Yes, yes, sorry. Zelenka couldn't figure out a device we found in the new lab last week. He can't really figure anything out without me, actually. I don't know how everything here operates when I'm off-world. Anyway, I'm here now, are we all ready to go?" McKay clapped his hands together and surveyed the team.
"Yeah, McKay, we're ready." John eyed him with a look that said don't be late again, even though he knew that it was a vain attempt, as he told Chuck to dial the gate for M9K-438. Luckily, their mission today was of the explore-establish-relations-possibly-trade kind and not the diplomatic-meeting-very-important-must-be-on-time variety. The wormhole activated, and the team raised their weapons as they walked through.
They emerged from the gate in the middle of a dense forest. There didn't seem to be any clear path through, and the light was low thanks to the interlocking branches high above their heads. John gestured in the general direction of the village they were supposed to be headed towards as he turned to Ronon. "Hey, can you find us a path through this thing?"
"Sure," Ronon replied with a grin as he led the way, blaster poised to fire at any sign of movement.
After about an hour of walking and surprisingly few complaints from McKay, the forest broke, and the team spotted the village up the road.
"We got through that without anything attacking us? Something is going to go horribly wrong out here where we least expect it, I know it," Rodney proclaimed, looking around nervously before checking his life signs detector. "Hm. Okay, well, there are no life signs until the village, so that's good. Although... that's weird."
"Rodney," John warned, keeping his eyes on the road to the village and his hand on his weapon, "you know I hate it when you say that."
"Yeah, well, it is. There're only fifteen or twenty life signs in the village, unless something's wrong with my life signs detector, which is extremely unlikely, since I checked it myself before we left."
"That is odd," Teyla agreed. "This world is called Velara. My people used to trade here often. This village was quite large. Larger than my own used to be, I believe." John noticed her eyebrows draw together and wondered if she had friends on this world in the past.
"Yeah, I've been here too," Ronon added, keeping his blaster trained ahead as his eyes flashed back and forth, constantly looking for danger. "There were about two hundred people in this village, if I counted right, and more living in other settlements across the planet."
John looked at his team, then back to the village, and nodded. "Could be Wraith, then. Everybody stay alert."
John saw Rodney roll his eyes as he gripped his P-90. "Of course it could be Wraith. It could always be the damn Wraith." Rodney grimaced, watching his life signs detector.
"Do you believe we should call for back-up?" Teyla asked.
John considered this for a moment, and then shook his head. "Nah. If we get up there and we see a bigger problem, we'll fall back. If it's only a couple dozen Wraith, I think we're fine, especially since they're probably not expecting us." He smirked and glanced to Ronon, who was looking like his birthday had come early. John chuckled under his breath and began walking towards the village, keeping his eyes open for any potential threats.
The walk took five highly guarded yet uneventful minutes to complete, and then the team was standing at the entrance to the village. "This looks like the set for a bad Western," John observed. Rodney nodded as Teyla and Ronon exchanged a confused glance. John glanced down the dirt path in front of him and gripped his gun tighter as he began to slowly move forward. He could see a small group of figures in what looked to be a courtyard of some sort up ahead. The team moved slowly and quietly towards the center of the village, keeping to the shadows provided by the row of houses along the road.
John heard a growl from behind him at the same time that the group of figures became clear enough that he could tell they were definitely Wraith. He counted sixteen of them before he began moving to the side, into a gap between two of the wooden houses. Ronon kept watch as John turned to Rodney. "Are there any more, other than that group?"
"Not within range of the life signs detector, no. And I'm only getting one energy reading here, which means there's only one ship. I'd guess it's a cruiser. A hive would give off a much higher reading," Rodney replied.
"Why would they stick around, though? It's weird."
"I do not know, John. It does seem odd," Teyla agreed.
"Who cares?" Ronon interjected. "Let's kill them. We can take them down before they even know we're here."
"Well, hold on there, Chewie. Rodney, how likely is it that they have some sort of shield set up so we can't detect other Wraith or energy readings or whatever?" John asked.
"If they did, they would've put themselves under it, or at least their ship. Not even the Wraith are that stupid," Rodney replied, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, well then let's get a little closer and take them out," John answered. Ronon flashed a grin as John made his way around the house, once again leading the team. They crept up past three more houses before John stopped and put his hand up. The team spread out, the formation so familiar John could feel when they were set, and he nodded.
-----
John knows as soon as he wakes that something has gone horribly wrong, as he has to fight his eyes open. When he eventually succeeds, John blinks rapidly against the bright lights shining down on him. He lifts one arm to rub at his eyes and notes that his entire body feels like dead weight, and holy shit does it hurt to try to move. Glancing around at what he can see without turning his head, John breathes a sigh of relief. If he's going to be incapacitated, at least he's safe in the infirmary in Atlantis and not being held captive on some strange planet.
John tries to lift a leg, hoping the dead weight feeling is just residual from sleep, but no, his body still feels like it weighs a ton and definitely still hurts. He hisses at the shock of pain. Suddenly Keller is there, looking down at him with worry and more than a small amount of relief, and was John really that close to dying? He thinks back to the last thing he remembers: the mission on M4X-278, the Genii coming in and firing on them, and damnit why do they keep trusting those guys? He looks up at Keller, intending to ask what went so wrong, but stops when he notices her lips are already moving.
Keller must somehow know and understand John's confusion because her lips stop moving and she moves out of John's line of vision for a moment, before returning with a data pad. She types for a little while and flips the pad around, showing it to John. You were attacked by the Wraith. There was a bomb. You're going to be fine now, but you're bandaged up; that's why you can't hear. Try not to move too much, okay?
John shakes his head minutely. "It was the Genii," he croaks out.
Her forehead crinkles as Keller shakes her head right back at John. She turns around and asks someone he can't see a question and turns back to John, confused. She types into the data pad again. The rest of your team say it was the Wraith. Why do you say it was the Genii?
"They were dressed like Genii. They had guns. Radim was there." John answers, giving his best glare from his position on the bed.
The doctor turns once more to talk to whoever it is that John can't see, presumably someone from his team. She types quickly on the datapad. What planet were you on, John?
"M4X-278," he replies immediately, and gladly notices that talking is starting to hurt less.
If John had been anyone else, he might think that he had gotten the gate address wrong. John knows, though, that he never forgets the gate addresses to planets, not even months after he's visited them, so he's extremely worried by Keller's response. Her eyes widen in surprise, and she turns to talk again, and then she glances back at John with what resembles fear before moving out of John's line of sight.
A moment later, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon enter John's vision, looking concerned. None of their lips are moving, they're all just staring down at him, and if Rodney's not talking then John knows something's up, even if the other man does know that John can't hear him. "What's wrong?"
Teyla's lips move for a moment before she falters and takes the data pad from McKay's hands. We were not on M4X-278 when you were injured, John. That incident was last month, and we all returned to Atlantis unscathed. This mission was on M9K-438. Do you not remember?
John can't think of anything to say to that, so he just shakes his head slowly and looks at his team members. Teyla looks unharmed save a few scratches, McKay has one arm in a sling and some cuts on the other arm, and Ronon has a bandage on his forehead with various other cuts mapped across his skin. John got the worst of it by far, then. He's glad about that, at least. He'd much rather be injured than have to see any of his team in this situation.
Keller comes back over at this point, shooing John's team away from his bed. She's poking and prodding at various bandages around his head and shining lights all over the place. She looks at John then, mouths sorry, and pushes a syringe full of something into John's IV.
-----
John drifts in and out of sleep quite a few times before he wakes up for good. It takes him a minute of glancing around before he realizes that moving his head doesn't hurt, which is a relief. A monitor of some sort beeps next to him and Keller turns in her spot across the infirmary and rushes over when she sees John's eyes open. "You're awake," she says, and John fights the urge to roll his eyes.
"Yeah," he replies. Then, before he can stop himself, he adds, "I can hear you!" even though he had just stopped himself from teasing Keller for stating the obvious.
She smiles. "Yeah, we removed the bandages from your head after your skin healed up enough. You've been in here for a week now, you know."
"A week?" John exclaims.
"Yes, John, a week. You were very badly injured in the blast." Keller's eyebrows draw together in worry. "Do you remember what happened?"
John shakes his head. "No, not yet."
"It might come back with time, it might not. Sometimes people block traumatic events and can never remember them again. We're just glad that you've only lost a month and not much more. I had to put you under the last time to check for brain damage, but I'm happy to report that you're fine." Keller finishes with a smile, then adds, "Are you hungry?"
"Good to hear," John replies weakly. "No, not hungry. Where's my team?"
"Oh, sorry about that. I sort of banned them from coming in here until you woke up. They wouldn't leave until I made them, which was three days after you were last awake. I'll get them for you now, though," Keller explains sheepishly.
"It's not a big deal. Just want to make sure they're all okay and not worrying about me too much."
Less than five minutes later, all three of John's teammates are crowded around John's bed. Rodney is talking at speeds that should be inhuman about some theory on a piece of technology that John is too worn out to follow right now, Teyla has a hand resting on John's shoulder and is smiling down at him, and Ronon has his arms crossed and is standing at the foot of the bed, smiling. John sighs in relief, comforted that everything is back to normal, with the exception of a few scratches just visible on Teyla's skin, Rodney's arm still in a sling, which John will have to remember to find out the severity of later, and a rather large cut on Ronon's forehead that's just beginning to heal.
John stares at this last injury, feeling something twinge in the back of his mind. The cut looks familiar. Sure, Ronon ends up injured a lot, and head wounds are not uncommon to him, but still, that cut on Ronon's head in that spot is something John has seen before, he knows. As he stares, Ronon's smile falters and Teyla's hand tightens on his shoulder. He hears Teyla's concerned tones rising above the constant drone of Rodney's conjectures, but can't discern words.
He realized a split-second too late what the click he heard had been...
Rodney's voice has dropped out of the sounds filtering through John's mind. At least, he thinks it has. It's hard to tell with the buzzing sound growing so loud.
Eyes wide, he turned to run. Teyla and Ronon were already running, but Rodney...
Someone's shaking John now, and Keller's hovering again, shooing his team away from the bed.
The noise was too loud, the dust choking him. He couldn't tell Rodney to run in time...
Again, John looks up and sees Keller's face, and she's saying something but his vision is already starting to cloud over.
The team spread out, the formation so familiar John could feel when they were set, and he nodded. Wraith started dropping to the ground immediately. John counted at least six on the ground before the other Wraith even had a chance to draw their weapons. He smirked and began to slowly advance on the group of Wraith, still firing. Two more down, another, only three left standing.
John took another step forward and distantly registered a clicking sound coming from below his feet. He fired a few more shots - only one Wraith left standing now - and froze. He looked down, realized a split-second too late what the click had been. "Oh, shit." Eyes wide, he turned to run. Teyla and Ronon were already running but Rodney was still standing, firing valiantly at the final Wraith who was the last of their concerns at the moment. The sound of the weapons fire amplified in his ears, the yells coming from Ronon and Teyla echoing around his head. The noise was too loud, the dust choking him. He couldn't tell Rodney to run in time, so he did the only thing he could think to do.
John leaped, tackling Rodney to the ground and covering as much of the other man's body with his own as he could manage. He heard Ronon's yell in the distance right before the blast sounded. John had time to realize how close, too close, the blast was to his body - Rodney's body - before the world went black.
-----
John wakes again in the infirmary. His team must have convinced Keller to let them stay, John won't wonder how, because they're around his bed. He looks to Rodney. "What the hell are land mines doing in Pegasus?" he asks.
"Oh, good morning to you too," Rodney replies sarcastically. "And don't bother apologizing for dislocating my shoulder either, it's fine."
"They have been around for quite a while here, John," Teyla adds, glaring at Rodney for his input. "They are a very rudimentary form of defense, but effective for one who is not expecting it."
"Yeah. Got that," John replies.
"So you did have them on Earth," Ronon adds. "Why didn't you start running sooner? Do they sound different or something?"
"Nah, pretty much the same, actually. I just wasn't thinking about it. Didn't know they existed here." John shrugs and manages to look at least mildly regretful about the situation. "Oh, and Rodney? I'm not sorry. I can't imagine the complaints we would have to endure if you'd ended up like this," John smirks, gesturing to the bandages still in place on one leg.
"Yes, yes. Well, thank you, I suppose."
Keller walks over to John's bedside, noticing for the first time that her patient has woken. "Good morning. You were only out for the night this time." John's glad to hear this, and even more so that he didn't have to ask. "Scared us, though. What happened?"
"He remembers," Ronon supplies.
"Oh, you do?" Keller asks, looking excited. "Well, that's better than I could have even hoped." She nearly bounces as she notes the new information on her data pad. "So, I'd say that barring any more surprises, you should be out of here by the end of the week. You'll have to stay off of active duty for about two weeks after that, just to make sure that the wounds fully heal before you go out again. You were very lucky, Colonel Sheppard. That bomb could have easily removed your leg or killed you, but instead I expect you to make a full recovery."
"Good to hear, doc." John smiles weakly up at her. John requests food for himself and his three team members be brought to the infirmary. One of the newest Marines, Stevens, comes in with the trays and snaps out a salute before turning to leave the infirmary. John smiles around at his team. Teyla and McKay's trays are balanced on his bed, Ronon's is across John's legs, and John's own is resting on his stomach. The infirmary may not have the wonderful views the mess hall has, but one can enjoy mediocre food in great company pretty much anywhere.