Naughty Child

Chapter 1

The jumper jostled them as the shields took another hit from the dart that had been following them since they left the Genii settlement they'd been scoping out. They weren't able to save anyone, though John couldn't bring himself to care too much about the Genii. Too many hard feelings. But that didn't stop him from feeling a little bad about leaving them to their fate, nor did it stop the Wraith from trying to catch them.

"Come on, get off my ass!" John growled, trying all the evasive maneuvres he knew. The shields took another hit and fell completely. The inertial dampeners weren't working right anymore, making every move toss them around the small craft.

A litany of "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," came from Ronon in his seat behind John, where he was strapped in as tight as possible and holding on for dear life, as the jumper rolled with the hits it was taking.

Something hit one of the engine pods, and alarms started going off. John cussed more colorfully than Ronon had. They were so close to the Stargate, too!

"Shit! Everybody duck, we're going down!" John yelled, even though he was unable to do the thing he was ordering the others to do.

"Please don't kill us!" Rodney begged.

"Try telling the Wraith that!" John shouted back. "Now shut up and duck!"

John felt a frisson of what seemed like worry coming from the interface. He knew the AI in the jumpers was the same AI as in the city. No matter how far away they were, the city could feel out her puddlejumpers. Although, the one time he tried to explain that to Rodney he'd gotten an ear full about why that was impossible. It was almost as bad as the time he tried to suggest that the city of Atlantis was sentient and liked to talk to him in his head, -well, not talk exactly, it was more like a series of impressions. John had been treated to a few sessions with Dr. Heightmeyer for that one.

John felt out these impressions now, screaming in his head where the AI could hear him, begging for shields but there were none that the jumper could give. "Fuck!"

Teyla, Ronon, and Rodney all stuck their heads between their knees - Rodney making some remark about kissing his ass goodbye. John watched as they passed over the Stargate, not having time to dial anything before they crashed into a forest of trees that immediately destroyed the front glass screen and chewed up the nose of the jumper as it took a final dive into the ground.

They finally came to a stop, creating a mound of dirt and debris from the rough landing. The sound of the dart zoomed off into the distance, the Wraith pilot probably assuming they died in such a crash.

Once the momentum and the loud cracking of trees breaking ended, Rodney slowly picked himself up off the floor that he had somehow landed on. He discovered that his seat had broken free from where it was mounted. With a groan, he rose to his feet, bringing a hand up to wipe at the familiar warm stickiness of blood on the side of his face. He had a gash in his cheek, probably from the console.

He looked around the cabin of the jumper, at the wreckage of twisted metal, sparking circuits and flickering crystals. Something in the rear of the jumper was on fire. He could smell the smoke, but thankfully the bulkhead was closed and keeping the majority of the smoke out.

He turned to find Teyla sitting limply in her seat, her arms and legs hanging awkwardly from the odd angle the jumper landed in. There was a large purpling bump on her forehead but her chest was rising and falling. She was knocked unconscious but fairly uninjured.

Ronon was cussing up a storm because he was pinned to his seat by a large piece of metal that Rodney swore belonged on the ceiling of the jumper.

He turned to check on John, only to see a mess of metal, glass, dirt and tree debris where the pilot's seat was supposed to be. All he saw of John was the sole of a boot sticking out from what was left of the console on that side of the craft.

"Oh, my god, John!" Rodney murmured, panicking. He shot forward and started digging through the dirt and debris to find John's head, to at least find out if he was breathing.

"McKay, get me outta here and I can help dig him out," Ronon growled, also more worried about John than he was about himself.

"Yeah, just a sec," Rodney muttered, finally unearthing John's head.

His face was almost unrecognizable with all the dirt and blood covering it. There were several cuts on John's face and head. Rodney felt for his pulse. He found one, it was slow and weak but it was there. The scientist breathed a sigh of relief when he realized his best friend was still breathing, however labored and wet sounding it was. The wet sound was not a good sign but John was alive – for the moment.

Rodney clambered to help Ronon. The jumper was tipped almost completely on its face, making it hard to move. He examined the Satedan's situation, finding the jagged metal ceiling panel was wedged into the grating on the floor, pinning Ronon's legs down. It took a lot of effort and finagling from both of them to navigate the removal of the panel, but they finally got it unstuck. Ronon tossed the large panel aside in frustration. There was a fairly deep and bloody laceration on Ronon's right thigh, but the bigger man seemed unworried.

Ronon limped and slid his way down the weird angle of the ship to where John was buried. He started digging frantically, not caring if his hands got cut up by the metal and glass pieces. He and Rodney soon found most of the right half of John's body.

He wasn't missing any limbs, which was good, but a couple of them were bent in places they shouldn't be. There were many rips of varying sizes in John's BDUs, blood dripping from all of them. Rodney was worried about internal bleeding.

"McKay, you need to run to the gate and get help," Ronon said, once he found a large stick that he couldn't pull out of the way. He realized it was stuck because it was protruding through John's chest and shoulder, which explained the wet wheezing sounds as he breathed. "Now!" he shouted.

He needn't have shouted, as Rodney was already climbing through a hole that was supposed to be part of the front screen of the jumper. It was easier than trying to climb up to the back and try to open the ramp.

Once out, Rodney ran as hard and fast as he could across the long streak that was their crash site, finding they were about a hundred yards away from the Stargate. What nearly gave him pause was the sound of Wraith darts in the distance, but that just made the genius try to run faster.

He got to the Stargate and dialed Atlantis, frantically messaging their need for assistance.

"There was a dart chasing us, firing at us. The jumper crashed. It's bad, really bad. Colonel Sheppard is very much not okay," Rodney panted through his earpiece. He tried to explain more about what happened, but his sentences were disjointed and incomplete. His chest was hurting and breathing was painful. He was pretty sure he might have a broken or a bruised rib or two.

"Okay, Rodney, try to breathe and rest. We're sending Lorne's team through, along with the medical staff, in another jumper," Colonel Carter responded.

"Good," Rodney sighed, slumping to his knees next to the dialing device. "That's good."

Little more than a minute later, a jumper came through the Stargate with Major Lorne at the controls, followed immediately by another rescue team and a unit of marines. He assumed Dr. Keller and the medical staff were in the jumper.

Rodney tried to run back to the crash site, but he was thwarted by one of the other rescuers and handed off to one of the nurses that tagged along.

Rodney had started shaking and showing obvious signs of shock. He argued with the nurse that was trying to get him to go back to the gate - he wanted to help save John, dammit! - but finally, the nurse shouted him down and his arguing subsided.

Meanwhile, Ronon was carefully digging the rest of John out, without disturbing what he now discovered was a whole tree branch sticking through John's body. He heard people approaching and tensed until he made out Jennifer's voice and the distinct sound of a jumper's engines.

Mere moments later, Dr. Keller's head came through the hole that Rodney had climbed out. She looked around, eyes glancing at Teyla before landing on Ronon and then on what she could see of John.

"Oh, god," she breathed, then started digging more dirt and debris out of the way to make the hole bigger.

She was joined by soldiers and other medical staff in her digging. Some of the marines started in on taking apart the front portion of the jumper, serving in equals parts to aid the rescue effort and for the salvage that would take place once the occupants were removed. They were soon met by the sound of saws and blowtorches.

Jennifer crawled through the hole, now big enough for her pull a backboard through after her. She first went to check on Teyla, who seemed to be coming around. In short order, she and another rescuer had the Athosian on the backboard and passed through the hole to the other medical staff waiting outside.

Another board was passed through, with a marine who was volunteered to help extract John from the wreckage. A saw had to be brought in to carefully cut through the branch that had skewered John.

Once he'd been carefully freed from that, John was gently rolled and lifted onto the backboard. He was laid on his side to leave room for the branch that couldn't be removed in the field. It worked out best that way, as it was soon discovered that John's left leg wouldn't have laid flat anyway.

"Okay, gently everyone," Jennifer said, carefully maneuvering John and the board he was strapped to through the now even larger hole, the marines having had taken out big chunks of metal to make way for the worst off patient to be moved.

John was brought out into the sunlight, a few gasps and murmurs from the others outside were heard until Carson laid a shock blanket over John. He, Jennifer and three others ran with John to the other jumper, or at least they tried to hurry over the field of wreckage and debris to get to where the other jumper was sitting.

Ronon wasn't far behind them, limping as fast as he could, with the help of one of the marines. John was loaded into the jumper and laid alongside Teyla. Ronon sat on one of the seats at his friend and taskmaster's side. The jumper's ramp closed and they took off toward the Stargate.

Ronon watched as Doctors Keller and Beckett and the few medical staff that could fit in the jumper worked on both of his closest friends. One of the nurses was trying to wrap a temporary dressing around Ronon's leg, but he wasn't cooperating.

"They need your help more than I do," Ronon growled, shoving the woman's hands away.

Teyla was conscious now, though still a little out of it. The nurse helping her had to keep pulling Teyla's hand away from the oxygen mask on her face, as she kept trying to pull it off.

Carson was working on John, putting an oxygen mask over the bloody mess that was John's face and putting field dressings on the worst of his wounds at the same time he was trying to wipe away some of the blood so he could see how bad the wounds actually were. Jennifer was cutting away John's shirt so she could try to stabilize the branch that was sticking out of his chest. Someone had already put the Colonel's right arm in a splint.

Ronon couldn't take his eyes off of what was happening with John. He couldn't believe this was happening. He'd never realized a simple crash could do that to a person. John looked dead from where he was sitting, the stuttered rising and falling of his chest being the only indication that he was alive. Up until now, John had seemed almost unstoppable. Sure, he got hurt from time to time; a cut here, a bruise there, even the odd gunshot wound. But he'd never been hurt like this. Never with any real threat to his life.

After the unmistakable feeling of passing through the Stargate, Ronon was rushed out of the jumper after the two groups that were carrying John and Teyla and putting them onto waiting gurneys.

They emerged into the infirmary to the sound of Rodney McKay being the worst patient ever, uncooperative until he saw his friends brought in. After that, his cooperation got worse when he tried to get to his friends instead of staying on the bed the infirmary medics were trying to keep him on.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Rodney sighed, glad that his friends made it there. His face fell, as John was wheeled past him. "Jesus, is he gonna be okay?" he asked Carson as he went by.

"I have no idea, Rodney," Dr. Beckett paused long enough to talk to him. "I haven't seen something this bad since I was a field medic."

"But he's gonna be okay, right?" Rodney asked again, his voice wavering, begging Carson to say 'Yes'.

"I honestly don't know," Carson replied. "Listen, he's going to need more than one surgeon. So, I have to go." With that, Dr. Beckett followed after the entourage that was treating the Colonel.

"Dr. McKay, I need you to come with me, please," one of the other doctors said. "I need to do a scan on you."

"What? No, I don't have time for that," Rodney argued, still looking at the group assembled around John, as they prepped him for surgery. The doctor tried to get Rodney's attention again, even tried to just pull him along to the scanner, but Rodney wouldn't let him. "I said no!" he spat, moving to go after them when they wheeled John into the operating room. Eventually, it devolved into a wrestle with three other medics to keep Rodney from bursting into the OR that ended with a sedative being jabbed into the scientist's arm.

Ronon sat on his gurney, silently letting the nurses tend to his leg and the other smaller wounds he hadn't even realized he had. He watched Rodney fight with the medical staff after he watched his friend wheeled away on the brink of death. He wanted to walk into that operating room to make sure the doctors did their jobs, to make sure John wasn't dead, but he knew he couldn't go in there if the fight with McKay was anything to go by. He glanced at Teyla, who had woken up but she was very pale and her vision was unfocused. Ronon knew that meant she had one hell of a concussion. He was interrupted from his musings by the feel of a needle in his arm. A nurse was putting an IV in and taping it down. He didn't think anything of it until he saw the nurse push some medicine into one of the ports, and suddenly his eyes started to droop from the sedative. He was gently laid down and covered by a very warm blanket before he was drawn into sweet oblivion.

To be continued.