Epilogue

"John, you are awake," Teyla said, a smile splitting her face as she approached his bed. For the first time since this whole fiasco started, she felt her heart lift, finally convinced that it was over and that they'd all survived again.

John rolled his head across the pillow to look at her, blinking his eyes in groggy confusion. He was leaning back against a stack of pillows, not quite lying down, not quite sitting up. Keller had a stethoscope to his chest, listening to his lungs, and she gave Teyla a brief smile before turning her attention back to her patient.

Teyla pulled up a nearby chair to sit at John's side. She grabbed his hand with both of hers and reveled in the warmth of his recovering body. It had been a close call. Somehow, one of the councilors had gotten word to one of the Marines that Sheppard and his team were in trouble. By the time they'd tracked them down, Ronon and Rodney were in an all out gunfight with the villagers, and Teyla was holding onto John for dear life.

The villagers hadn't stood much of chance to begin with, but with the additional support of Lorne and a couple of Marine units, the treasure hunters had gone down fast. Keller and her team had been notified as well, and they'd reached John a few minutes after that. A mad rush back to the infirmary and hours of surgery later, Keller had finally emerged holding the nefarious silver disk and informed them that John would be okay.

"How are you feeling, John?" she asked. John blinked up at her in response, looking confused.

"He just woke up," Keller said, adjusting the nasal cannula under his nose. "He's a little out of it still."

Teyla smiled and reached over to brush a lock of hair from John's forehead. John twitched, a slight frown of annoyance creasing his forehead.

"How's the pain, Colonel? Do you need anything?" Keller spoke loudly, tapping his shoulder to get his attention. John turned toward her, wincing at the movement. His arm reached toward the center of his chest, but Keller grabbed it quickly before he could do anything.

"Relax, Colonel. Don't touch your chest."

"Chest?" John mumbled, then coughed. Teyla poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the nightstand, and turned John's head toward her. His eyes tracked her sluggishly, but he relaxed when she prodded his lips with the straw.

"Sheppard! You're up," McKay announced. Teyla pulled the cup away as the other two team members walked up to his side.

"Hey. How you doing, buddy?" Ronon asked, a grin splitting his face.

"Buddy?" John blinked, staring up at the runner.

"He just woke up," Keller said again.

"Up?" John asked.

"He's on the good stuff, obviously," Rodney said, rolling his eyes. He disappeared for a second before returning with a couple of chairs, one of which Ronon grabbed and planted next to Teyla.

"Is Woolsey still in his meeting with the village council?" Teyla asked, keeping a hand on John's arm but turning to her other two teammates.

"Just got out," Ronon answered. "We've manage to rout out all of Jaws's gang, including their insider man, Councilor Gjon."

"What's going to happen to them?" Keller asked as she pulled the blanket up around John's shoulders and tucked it in.

"Who?" John asked, rolling his head in her direction and frowning. Teyla leaned forward, brushing his hair back and trying to soothe the confusion out of his face.

"The lead councilor—what's his name? Tebel?—he's leaving it to us to deal with the remaining treasure-hunting posse," Rodney answered. "Woolsey's talking to the SGC and the IOC right now to figure out what to do with them."

"I can't believe something like this happened right here on Atlantis, right under our noses."

John blinked up at the doctor, his eyes suddenly sharp. "Atlantis," he stated firmly. Keller looked down and smiled at him. She patted him on the shoulder before turning to his team. "Don't keep him up too long. He's got quite a bit of recovering to do."

The others nodded, and Keller began walking away. She'd only gone a few steps before she spun around. "Oh, and don't mess with my patient. If I catch you taking advantage of the fact that he's completely drugged out…" She let the rest of the threat go unspoken, but she shook her finger at Rodney and Ronon one last time before leaving.

"Like we'd mess with him," Rodney huffed.

Teyla rolled her eyes, knowing very well just how much the scientist would love to mess with John. Ronon was smirking next to her, and she sighed, wondering how she put up with them sometime.

She turned back to John. His face was still deathly pale, and he had dark circles under his eyes, but he looked a hundred times better than he had the day before. She shivered a little at the thought of what had been done to him. Councilor Tebel had explained how the treasure hunters had taken them hostage and subdued John.

"Okay?"

Teyla shook herself out of her reverie at John's question, and she looked down to see him looking up at her full of concern.

"I am fine, John," she answered. She grabbed his hand in both of hers again and watched as his eyes start to droop closed. "You should rest."

"Rest?"

"You are safe, John."

"Yeah, now he is. Only Sheppard would get himself abducted while we're all sitting around at home."

"Home?"

"Atlantis," Ronon added, and Teyla frowned at the glint of mischief in the man's eye.

"Atlantis," John repeated with a sharp, definitive nod of his head.

"And the voodoo chicken priestess has deemed that you will recover," Rodney said, tapping John's foot.

"Chicken?"

"Voodoo chicken priestess," Rodney said with that same glint of mischief on his face.

"Pri..ss…priesss,"

"Priestess. Voodoo."

"Voodoo?" John rolled his head back toward Teyla. His body sank a little deeper into the bed as exhaustion pulled at him, but his eyes were bright and baffled.

"On Atlantis," Ronon said loudly.

"'lantis," John repeated again. If he'd had the strength, he might have pounded his fist on the bed.

"That's right," Rodney jumped in. "Atlantis."

"At…'lantisss."

"Rodney, Ronon—that is enough," Teyla interjected before either of them could say anything more.

"'nufff…" John slurred. Teyla turned her back on her two teammates as they tried to stifle their laughter and focused on John's drawn, confused face.

"Sleep, John. You will feel better later."

John looked like he was about to repeat her again, but Teyla moved a finger up to his lips to quiet him. "Ssshhh…" she soothed. She stroked the side of his cheek with the back of her fingers, smiling when John's eyes finally slid shut. The muscles in his face relaxed, and his breathing evened out into sleep.

Teyla turned back to her still-giggling teammates and pinned them with a hard stare. "I will deal with both of you later," she said firmly, like she was talking to a couple of delinquent children. "In the gym."

She tried to maintain her stern look, she really did, but she couldn't help the laughter that bubbled out of her at the look of abject horror on both of their faces. Besides her, John slept peacefully.

How she loved this team.

END