Epilogue

Jennifer had been pissed, but not because of the wheelchair. She had been pissed at him mainly, thought Rodney, and to a certain extent Ronon and even Teyla.

"Why didn't you call me straight away?" she had said, arriving at the pier with her team and a gurney to find Sheppard, collapsed, the dressing round his ankle spotted with blood, his fever raging. "And don't tell me he said he was fine, because you know very well he always says that!"

"We were just enjoying our moment of triumph," Rodney had replied in a small voice, but Jennifer had snorted and whisked Sheppard away. Then Rodney had had to undertake the hair-raising task of landing Atlantis safely back on the oceans of New Lantea and really, it was all very well knowing how the City worked in theory and all about re-entry, safe angle of incidence, approach velocity and all that, but it turned out it was a very different thing to actually be responsible for doing it in practice. Anyway, they had landed safely and Rodney was glad he'd been up to the job; Sheppard certainly hadn't been.

Rodney raised his eyes from the glow of his laptop and regarded Sheppard's sleeping form and beyond him that of Major Lorne. Both were suffering from the after effects of Squidward's barbed tentacles, but both were responding to treatment, according to Jennifer. John shifted beneath the blankets and moaned softly and Rodney froze, afraid of incurring Jennifer's wrath if she thought he had woken John up. But John just sighed deeply and his breathing evened out again.

Rodney turned back to his work. He tapped a few keys, sighed, deleted the lot and tried again. He'd thought he should write to the families of the two technicians who'd been killed, but he wasn't very good at that kind of thing. Maybe leave it to Zelenka. He felt his eyelids drooping.

"Rodney."

He jerked awake, nearly dropping the laptop. Jennifer was leaning over him.

"Oh, er, hi."

Jennifer jerked her head toward the empty bed behind him and raised an eyebrow.

"If you're staying..." she said.

Rodney smiled, realising he was no longer in disgrace and gratefully kicked off his shoes and got into the bed. Now he could keep an eye on Sheppard and do some work in comfort, he thought, and promptly fell asleep.

oOo

"This wasn't the convalescence I had in mind for you," said Keller, sitting down next to John who was getting some fresh air on the balcony, his temperature finally back to normal, his wounds on the mend. He squirmed awkwardly in one of the few remaining wheelchairs and chewed his lip, wondering if she was finally going to condemn him to a lengthy stay on Earth.

"I'm not angry with you," she said earnestly. "I know you do what you do to protect us all. I just wish sometimes we could protect you."

John shrugged, embarrassed, wishing people would understand he was just doing his job. Keller sighed. John hoped she'd had enough of the one-sided conversation; he was grateful for her care - maybe he could say that? Then again, maybe not.

"I'm not sending you to Earth," she said. A knot unwound inside him. "I realise you belong here, maybe more than anywhere else." He frowned, thinking that was probably true and wondering if it was a good thing. "But," she continued, "you must take time to recover and rely on me and your team to help you! Yes?"

"Yeah, er... Thanks."

She smiled, got up and turned away. Then turned back. "You know I'm not letting you out yet, don't you? And there'll be no wheedling or bargaining for early release or anything of that sort?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Good." She left and was immediately succeeded by his team.

Rodney, his eyes fixed firmly on his laptop, sat down, twitching a finger and murmuring, "Sheppard," in economical greeting.

Teyla did the full Athosian thing as she usually did when John had, yet again faced death or serious injury.

Ronon picked up a chair, flung it round and sat down, draping himself over the back, his legs carelessly sprawled either side.

"So, you think there're any more of those things?" he said.

"I've configured the sensors using a sample of Squidward's DNA," said Rodney absently, not taking his eyes off his work. "If there's one within a hundred clicks we'll know about it."

"What will we do if we detect one of the creatures?" asked Teyla.

Rodney looked up from his laptop and the four team-mates met each other's eyes; then John, Rodney and Teyla turned to Ronon.

Ronon smiled. "Nuke it."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this story! Please review! I would love to know what you thought! Thank you!