Chapter 3: Recovery.

Jennifer exited the OR feeling very tired and hungry, she'd spent over eight hours putting Colonel Sheppard back together and it wasn't the first time. She knew that it wasn't really his fault, but thinking back to what Rodney had said earlier, about him being a trouble magnet she wondered whether there was some truth in that. Maybe the man was cursed, he'd been in her OR three times in the last six weeks and that definitely wasn't a good thing.

She was startled out of her thoughts by Dr Cole, "Jennifer do you want me to settle Colonel Sheppard into the ICU while you tell his team what is going on?"

"Yes. That would be great thank you."

Jennifer threw her scrub top into the biohazard bin and began to walk slowly towards Teyla's bed, she knew that is where Rodney and Ronan would be, because when one of the team was in the infirmary, the other members of the team kept a bedside vigil and never left.

Arriving in the main ward she found Rodney and Ronan curled up on chairs beside Teyla's bed, Rodney had drool coming out of the side of his mouth and Ronan was snoring loudly; it's a wonder the other two could sleep with all that noise going on. She gently shook Rodney, trying to wake him up.

"Rodney," she whispered.

No response. She shook him a little harder. "Rodney," she said a little louder.

There was still no response. She shook him again even harder, "Rodney," she practically shouted.

Finally he woke up and almost jumped out of his skin. Composing himself and wiping the drool off his chin, he looked at Jennifer, "how is he Doc?"

Ronan and Teyla were awake by this time, both looking at her with worry on their faces.

"He's not good, he has two broken ribs, one which has punctured a lung and he had internal bleeding around the lung which caused the lung to collapse, we've put him on the ventilator, as he's not breathing on his own. He has multiple lacerations on his chest and stomach; most of them needed stitching, his shoulder has excessive ligament and muscle damage and we fixed his leg with a rod and screws.

"Can we see him?" Teyla asked with sadness.

"Yes you can, but only one person can sit with him at a time, as I need my staff to be able to get to him in an emergency.

When they all nodded, she looked at Teyla, "I would like you to go in a wheelchair. You can have five minutes and then I want you straight back to bed. I'll have a look at you tomorrow and if I'm satisfied you're well enough I'll release you to your quarters."

Teyla nodded, "thankyou Doctor Keller."

Ronan pushed a wheelchair in at that moment and then helped Teyla into it. Taking it by the handles, he pushed her into the ICU.

The three of them looked at the man lying in the bed, he was their team leader and friend and they were saddened by what they saw. His leg was in traction and it was heavily bandaged. His shoulder was strapped to his side and heavily bandaged, there were bandages covering his chest and stomach. He had an IV in each hand, one giving him blood, the other giving him fluids and there was a chest tube coming from his chest draining blood and fluids.

He was covered with a sheet to his waist and his colour was an even whiter shade of white than the sheet. The only indication that he was alive was the whoosh of the ventilator and the beep of the heart monitor.

"What are his chances Jennifer?" Teyla asked looking distressed.

"I honestly don't know right now, we'll keep an eye on him over the next three days and then we'll have some idea."

"I'm going to sit with him for now." Ronan muttered.

Rodney was about to argue when Teyla spoke to him, "can you take me back to my bed Rodney as I'm really tired."

He nodded and grabbed the wheelchair by the handles and left the room.

Ronan looked at his friend and brother and gently patted him on his good shoulder. "Get well soon Sheppard, you realise that this place just wouldn't be the same without you don't you. Anyway I'm going to sit here and I'm not going anywhere until you wake up."

Ronan sat in a chair and put his feet on the end of the bed and closed his eyes, he knew it would be a while before his friend woke up, but he would sit there every minute of every day if he had to, until he woke up.

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Rodney wheeled Teyla into the main part of the infirmary and helped her get into bed, he pulled up a chair and sat beside her, he wasn't going to go anywhere.

"Rodney you do not have to stay and watch me sleep." She told him gently.

"Lorne's bringing my laptop down in a minute, so I won't just be watching you sleep; I'll be working as well." Rodney explained to her.

She nodded and closed her eyes, it had been a long day and although she wasn't in agony, she was still in some pain. She lay there thinking about her time with John, she had really enjoyed it until the whole being attacked by the Clawer incident. Although Kanaan was a good friend, she had never enjoyed his company as much as she did John's. I really need to talk to Kanaan she thought, before falling into a deep sleep.

Rodney was sitting staring at Teyla when Lorne and Woolsey entered.

"How is she?" Lorne asked with concern.

"She'll be fine in a few days. It's Colonel calamity that is severely injured and on life support." Rodney ranted.

"It was an accident McKay." Lorne growled at him.

"I know and he was protecting Teyla at the time, so he was just being himself. The problem is he thinks of others above himself. It's almost as if he doesn't value himself." Rodney was beginning to rant again by the end of his speech.

"He's a soldier McKay, protecting people is what we do, it's our job." Lorne explained.

"Yes, but who protects him?" Rodney asked.

"We all do if we can, but unfortunalty we don't always succeed." Lorne told him.

Woolsey was sitting listening to the conversation with interest, but it didn't really answer what he wanted to know.

"Do you know what happened Dr McKay?"

"He was attacked by a creature called a clawer; apparently that was one of the small ones. Then the ground collapsed underneath him and Teyla revealing a sinkhole. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time as usual." Rodney ranted.

"Will he be okay?" Woolsey asked looking concerned.

"Well you'd better ask the voodoo magic woman over there." Rodney replied sarcastically pointing to Dr Keller, who was sitting in her office.

"Okay Dr McKay, I'll let you get back to work and I'll see you later." Woolsey replied leaving the room, with Lorne following behind him.

Rodney settled down in his chair again and started typing on his computer.

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John became aware of the inky black darkness that surrounded him and he wondered how he'd ended up in the place. He saw a patch of grey up ahead and wondered if he should head towards it, but all of a sudden he felt incredible pain and he was finding it difficult to breathe, he felt as if there was an elephant sitting on his chest and there was an obstruction in his throat. He tried lifting his arm to remove it and felt incredible pain surge through his shoulder, so he just gave up. He was convinced he was going to suffocate when he felt a cool soothing liquid begin to flow through his veins.

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It had been twelve hours and Ronan was still sitting by John's bedside. He was napping when the alarms beside John's bed suddenly started to wail and then John suddenly started gagging on the ventilator tube, he watched as John tried to rip it out of his mouth without success. The poor man looked as if he was going to suffocate. Dr Keller came running with Marie following closely behind, she injected something into John's IV and he settled down to sleep again his breathing evening out.

"What the hell was that?" Ronan growled.

"When patients awake to find themselves on the vent, they often feel like they are suffocating. I injected him with a sedative until it is safe to ween him off it."

"Will that be soon?" Rodney asked entering to room.

"Hopefully we should be able to do it with in the next twenty four hours." She explained.

"Now I want you to both go and get something to eat and a good six hours sleep. I don't want to see you back here for at least seven hours." Jennifer said in her sternest voice.

"Okay Doc, We'll Catch you later." Ronan told her leading Rodney out of the room.

Once they had exited the infirmary Rodney said, "I'm going to my lab."

"I'm going to the gym," Ronan told him.

They looked at each other and went in opposite directions.

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John became aware of the inky black darkness that surrounded him and he wondered how he ended up in the place. He saw a patch of grey up ahead and wondered if he should head towards it, but all of a sudden he felt incredible pain and he was finding it difficult to breathe, he felt as if there was an elephant sitting on his chest and there was an obstruction in his throat. He tried lifting his arm to remove it and felt incredible pain surge through his shoulder, so he just gave up. He was convinced he was going to suffocate, but then he remembered he'd been in this place before and not so long ago. He heard a gentle voice soothing him, so he tried to listen to what the voice was telling him. It sounded like the voice of and angel. He really wanted to see what was going on so he opened his eyes and looking at him was the most beautiful angel he had ever seen and her name was Teyla.

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Teyla had been out of the infirmary for two days and was sitting by John's bed. She was holding his hand and talking to him gently when he started to gag on the ventilator tube, all of a sudden the alarms beside John's bed suddenly started to wail.

Teyla looked down at John and started to reassure him, "do not worry John, Jennifer will be here in a minute, you are on the ventilator and it is breathing for you, try not to struggle John. It will all be over soon. Suddenly he stopped struggling and opened his eyes and looking up at her were the most beautiful hazel eyes, she had ever seen.

Jennifer came rushing in the room and looked at her patient, his eyes were open wide and he appeared to be calm and letting the vent breathe for him, but she knew it was time to extubate and let him breath on his own.

She looked him directly in the eyes before she spoke to him, "John, I'm going to take the vent out now, I will just need to collect some of my things, just hang on a little longer okay?"

John nodded and held on to Teyla's hand as hard as he could, not wanting, her to leave.

"Teyla you may want to leave, this won't be very pleasant," Jennifer told her when she returned.

John tried to shake his head and held her hand even tighter.

"It is okay Jennifer; I do not think John wants me to leave." Teyla replied

"Okay Colonel, on the count of three, I want you to take the biggest breath that you can."

John nodded and then looked up at Teyla for reassurance.

"One, two, three."

John held his breath the best he could with the pain that he was experiencing. Jennifer removed the tube and turned the ventilator off. She then placed an oxygen mask over his face until his breathing evened out.

"Would you like some ice chips Colonel Sheppard?" Jennifer asked him.

When he nodded, she took the oxygen mask of his face and put some ice chips in his mouth.

It felt so good sliding down his throat. He turned to look at Teyla, taking in her casted arm and the bandage on the side of her head, "are you okay?" He croaked out.

"Yes John I am fine. I am certainly in a better condition than you are."

"How long?" He whispered, his pain beginning to notch up a level.

"You have been back on Atlantis for three days." Jennifer answered, while putting a nasal cannula under his nose. "Would you like a run down on your Injuries?"

"Why not," he whispered.

"You have a broken leg which we have fixed with rod's and screws, when the swelling goes down and the wound has healed up we will put it in a cast. Your stomach and chest have massive lacerations caused by claws and we have had to stitch them up. Your shoulder is an absolute mess and there is extensive muscle and ligament damage; you'll definitely need physical therapy on that and on top of all that you have two broken ribs one of which punctured and collapsed a lung. There was internal bleeding around the lung so we had to go in and fix that as well. That is why we had you on a ventilator. We took the drainage tube out yesterday."

"Will I be okay?" He whispered with fear in his eyes.

"Yes eventually you'll be back to one hundred percent health; by you won't be back on duty for many months." Jennifer explained to him.

"Are you in pain John?" Teyla asked him.

"I'm fine," he mumbled his eyes drooping.

"That would be a yes then," Jennifer said injecting his pain meds into his IV.

He felt his eyes drooping but didn't want to let go of Teyla's hand, "stay with me?"

"Do not worry John, I will be here when you wake up," Teyla soothed

With that he let his drooping eyes close and fell into a deep restful sleep.

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It was another three days before John awoke again. He lay there in the silence thinking that he was alone. The pain wasn't too bad at the moment, so he assumed that the good Doc must have just given him some pain meds.

He was startled from his thoughts, by Ronan looking down at him, "hey Sheppard, how are you?"

I'm good," he mumbled.

Sure you are buddy," Ronan replied.

"What the hell was that thing that attacked me anyway?" John asked, trying not to move, as his pain levels started to increase.

"It's called a clawer and they are very rare, they don't exist on many worlds. Believe it or not that was a small one, they can grow to five times that size," Ronan explained.

"Great and I had to find one," he muttered trying to hide the pain he was feeling.

"That's exactly what McKay said," Ronan chuckled.

"This isn't funny Ronan."

"Sorry. I'll go and get Keller; she wanted to know when you woke up again."

At that moment Keller walked into the room, "how are you feeling Colonel?"

"I'm good," he replied.

"Okay, so you're in pain then," she told him, before injecting some pain medication into his IV. "Go back to sleep Colonel, it's the best thing for your body right now."

"I've gotta go buddy, but I'll see you soon," Ronan told him, patting his good shoulder.

John nodded, his eyelids drooping. He was asleep before Ronan even left the room.

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It was another two days before he awoke again. It took him a while to figure out where he was. He lay there with his eyes closed listening to the tap, tap, tap going on beside his bed, he immediately knew who it was; it was Rodney.

He turned his head to the side to try and get his friends attention, "Rodney," he whispered.

Rodney just kept on typing, so he tried again, "Rodney," he spoke a little louder.

There was still no reply, "Rodney," he practically yelled.

"Hey Sheppard, how are you?" Rodney asked finally looking up from his computer.

"I'm good," he mumbled.

"Really, why do you always say that, you are absolutely not good? That Mutant tiger thing could have killed you, as it is it ripped you to shreds." Rodney ranted.

"It's called a Clawer McKay."

"It doesn't matter what it's called, it ripped you to shreds." Rodney replied getting angrier by the minute.

"Look McKay, what was I supposed to do let it attack Teyla, she has a son to look after? I had to protect her."

"Yes, first Teyla, then Jennifer and then Teyla again, do you have to save every damsel in distress in this entire galaxy." Rodney ranted his voice dripping with sarcasm.

John looked at him with cold anger in his eyes, "Rodney I'm a soldier, that's what I do I protect others and if you can't come to terms with that, then we'd better not be friends. Now can you get Dr Keller in here, because I'm in pain and I need some sleep?" He said turning his back on his friend."

Rodney left the room and Jennifer came in a few minutes later, she injected some pain meds into his IV and quietly left the room, she sensed that he didn't want to talk to anyone and he needed some time alone.

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Teyla was heading to the infirmary to see John when Rodney rushed past her, she turned to talk to him and realised that he was angry and he was angrier than she had ever seen him before, she turned away from the infirmary and followed Rodney, something was up and she needed to see what was going on.

Arriving at his lab, she saw him staring into space with a coffee cup in his hands, "Rodney, are you okay?"

"No I'm not I've just been to see Colonel Catastrophe and he just told me that we shouldn't be friends any longer."

"Why would he say that?" She asked gently.

"I pointed out the fact that he always seems to be getting injured and he doesn't value himself." He told her with sadness.

"What happened then?" She coaxed.

"He told me he was a soldier and protecting people was what he did and that if I couldn't come to terms with that then maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore." He ranted.

"I am sure that he did not really mean it, he is in a lot of pain at the moment. I will talk to him for you." She soothed.

"Thanks Teyla I really appreciate it." Rodney replied.

Teyla turned and left the room and headed back to the infirmary.

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It was another twenty four hours until John awoke again, he lay there with his eyes closed for a few moments, he didn't really feel in any pain so it was obvious that he was on some strong pain killers. He lay there for a bit longer until he heard a strange gurgling sound, he really needed to know what that was, and so he opened his eyes.

Teyla was sitting next to his bed cradling Torren in her arms. "Hello John, I've brought someone to see you. Torren really misses his Uncle John.

Teyla sat him up to look at John, "hey T.J., how are you?" He asked a smile lighting up his face.

Torren's eyes lit up and he made a funny gurgling sound.

"See he is really happy to see you John."

He looked at her with a sheepish look on his face, "Ummm Teyla, I said some things when I was injured that I probably shouldn't have said and I want to apologise if they upset you."

Teyla looked at him with a serene look on her face, "what were those John?"

"Well number one I told you that I love Torren as if he was my own son and number two, I said that I love you. Now I know that you are with Kanaan and you love him and you may want to undertake the bonding ceremony with him one day. I just want you to know that if that is what you choose to do, I am totally happy for you." John closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"John, open your eyes and look at me?" she waited for him to open his eyes, before continuing, "Kanaan and I will not be undertaking the bonding ceremony. Torren was conceived out of friends finding comfort in one another's arms. I do not love Kanaan and he and I have decided to follow different paths."

John looked at her and took a deep breath, "I told you I love you, so how do you feel about me?" He asked with hope filled eyes.

Still holding Torren, she leant down and kissed him on the lips, "does this give you a clue."

When he felt Teyla's lips on his, he kissed her back passionately. He was about to lift his arm to put it behind her head, when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He pulled away from her, "sorry Teyla, I guess I'm not up to this at the moment."

Her eyes twinkled as she looked back at him, "there will be plenty of time for that later." Taking a deep breath she continued. "There is something I said when I was in that hole. I said that maybe I'd like to have more children one day, but not necessarily with Kanaan."

His eyes twinkled at her, "yes I remember."

"Well there is someone that I think I would like to have children with some day and his name is John Sheppard."

He smiled at her, he couldn't believe his luck that this amazing woman loved him and wanted to be with him, "well sweetie, I really don't see that happening for a while, because I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future."

She glared at him, "did you just call me sweetie?"

John felt severely chastised, "sorry."

"That is all right Honey."

She leant down and kissed him again, he kissed her back forcefully until they heard the sound of someone clearing his throat.

Looking around they saw Rodney at the door and they both blushed.

"Shall I come back later?" He teased.

"No come on in." John told him.

"How are you feeling, today Sheppard?" Rodney asked sincerely.

"Ummm… Rodney, I think I owe you and apology. I'm sorry that I snapped at you the other day and I want to thank you for worrying about me." John told him looking at the end of his bed.

"No problem, now what is that I just walked in on?" Rodney asked curiously.

"Ummm…. I'm not really sure," John stammered out.

Teyla looked embarrassed, "we were just expressing our feelings for one another."

"Really…?"

Rodney didn't have a chance to say anything else, because Jennifer came in to the room. "Okay it's time for Colonel Sheppard to get some rest."

"I'll see you later Sheppard," Rodney told him patting his good arm.

"I'll see you later Honey," Teyla told him kissing his cheek.

"Goodnight sweetie," John told her, as she left the room.

Once Teyla and Rodney had left the room, Jennifer looked at him and smiled, "so you and Teyla huh. It's about time too."

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Epilogue: Three months later.

It had been three months since the incident on FG-321 and for the most part John's injuries had healed. His shoulder was back to 100% and his leg was almost back to normal. He was able to get around with the use of a cane but it still wasn't enough for Keller to put him back on light duty.

He had spent a lot of time with Teyla after he had been released from the infirmary and they had finally chosen an apartment and moved in together, so now they were living as a family.

They had also discussed undertaking the Athosian bonding ceremony in the near future, but the only problem was they needed to talk to Halling about it. They wanted to go to New Athos to discuss it, but Woolsey and Keller were apprehensive about letting John go off world.

Today he and Teyla were sitting in Woolsey's office, to ask permission for John to go and visit the Athosians.

"Mr Woolsey I need to go and speak to Halling urgently, I would like to ask permission for John to go off world with me." Teyla asked.

It was Keller who answered, "John is not back to 100% yet and I don't want to risk him being injured again."

John looked at her with his best puppy dog eyes, "it's a day trip to visit Halling and the Athosians, what could possibly go wrong?"

FIN…

An AU to what originally happened in season five.