Chapter Three – The Obligatory Epilogue…

It was a few hours later, and John had given his report to Elizabeth and checked on his injured men. Ritter would have to return to Earth for specialist therapy if he stood any chance of being able to walk without a limp. Johnson would also need some therapy for his arm, but his prognosis was much more optimistic, with full mobility and strength predicted within a few months at most.

He was now settled on a seat between a much battered McKay in one bed and a sleeping Teyla in another.

Teyla's knife wound had needed stitches, so much for her 'it is fine' comment earlier. Beckett had not been pleased that she had gone on the rescue with such an injury; Sheppard was annoyed as well, but knew if he had been in her place he would have done the same thing. She was lucky that the wound had not become infected, and Beckett said it should heal well enough. Of course, the good doctor had decided to keep her in the infirmary for the night to 'keep an eye on her' if she was 'going to be bloody stupid' about her injuries 'like certain other people he could mention', aiming a glare at John. Sheppard had responded by putting on his 'who me' innocent expression, not that anyone was fooled by it - they knew him too well for that.

As for Rodney, his knife wound had also required stitching, with a lot more stitches than Teyla's had. He was badly beaten; his arms and torso taking the worst of the blows, and there had been some internal bleeding, but slow. Beckett was hoping it would right itself without the need for surgery, and Rodney was being closely monitored. He also had a spectacular bruise forming down one side of his face which might make talking painful for a while. Not that Sheppard expected it would stop McKay from talking completely, but it might slow the guy down for a while. He smiled at that thought briefly, before sighing again. They'd been lucky; no fatalities on their side and injuries that would heal.

At least Koyla was dead and wouldn't be causing anyone any more trouble.

But the price had been too high, for all that. Not just the loss of one of their jumpers, but for McKay and what he had suffered at Kolya's hand. It could have been a lot worse, but that wasn't much consolation to him. Rodney should never have been in that position to start with. They should have left the jumper and returned for it later. Without the gene, it was pretty much useless to the Genii and Casils, but at the time he hadn't known who was behind the attack, and he knew Ladon had been working on an artificial gene therapy at some point - after all, it was why Lorne and his team had been taken before the coup. He couldn't take the risk that it had worked and that this was their so-called ally at work. John still didn't trust the Genii leader, and was unlikely ever to do so.

He was jolted from his thoughts by the arrival of Beckett, here to check on his patients.

"You should get some rest," Beckett commented as he checked Rodney's vitals and apparently found them satisfactory.

"I'm fine. Besides, shouldn't you be resting too?"

"Touché, Colonel, touché," Carson replied with a quick grin. "He's going to be just fine."

"I'm sure he will be, I just…"

"Need to be with your sentinel right now."

"Yes, something like that," he agreed. "Doc, I told you that I could hear McKay, didn't I? Any ideas why?"

"Aye, you did. According to records it's never worked this way before. It's always been guide to sentinel telepathy, not sentinel to guide."

"So why us? What makes us so different?" John pressed.

"Well, I've been thinking about that and the only thing I can come up with at present is the ATA gene."

"But O'Neill has the gene…"

"Aye, but Dr Jackson doesn't. I'm thinking it has something to do with the way the gene enables a person to use Ancient technology mentally as well as physically. I think it's that which is behind Rodney's ability to communicate with you, someone who also has the gene, with his mind. If it was just that the sentinel needed the gene, then as you pointed out, General O'Neill should then be able to communicate with Dr Jackson. As it is, they can't, so it must require both to have the gene. That is, if I'm right about it being to do with the gene in the first place. It's all pure conjecture at this point."

"But you could test it, right? Give Jackson the therapy and if it takes, then they should be able to communicate two-way like us."

"Aye, I'll be mentioning it to them, but it's up to them if they want to test it out or not."

At that point, Ronon entered the infirmary and the conversation turned to how Teyla and Rodney were doing, after which Ronon strongly suggested that Sheppard get something to eat before the mess hall ran out of hot food, offering to stay with McKay whilst he did so, and agreeing to contact him if Rodney woke up. Beckett left them to it, returning to his office to catch up with some long overdo paperwork.

After Sheppard had returned from the mess hall, he had been persuaded by the combined forces of Beckett and Ronon to sleep, on a bed in the infirmary, whilst Ronon 'kept watch' over McKay, with strict instructions to wake Sheppard if Rodney woke up, and to swap with him in four hours time either way.

Ronon had ignored those orders and let Sheppard sleep longer, content to keep watch until the morning, feeling a need to make sure that this most annoying of friends would be okay, and to sit quietly with his sleeping team.

He dreamt of knives, cutting him, and fists, pounding him, and pain and fear, squeezing him…and Kolya's face, smiling at his pain, laughing at his weakness, gloating at his fear…

He woke up, panting, and tried to sit up only to be held down by a strong but gentle hand on his chest

"Just a dream, McKay."

And just like that, the tension drained out of him, leaving him tired. Ronon. Atlantis. Safe. Home.

And ow and ouch, as his various aches and pains made themselves known.

"Ow," he said out loud, trying to move into a comfortable position, only to find none. "Hurts."

"Yeah. You got beaten up good," Ronon replied.

"Nothing good about this," he muttered, and ouch, his jaw hurt as well.

"Might not want to talk. Your jaw, and face, are bruised. Not a pretty sight, you might want to avoid mirrors as well."

"Thanks for the advice," he said snidely, closing his eyes and trying to find the pain dial. Ah, there it was. He pushed it down a little. Right, so now it was working fine. Pity it hadn't been so easy to control when…a shudder ran through his body, which, ow, damn it, had not been such a good idea.

"You want me to get Beckett?"

"If he's got the good drugs, yes."

McKay heard a sound of amusement, and opened his eyes to glare at his team-mate. The glare lessoned as Ronon pressed the call button.

"Others… okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. Teyla's arm's been stitched. She'll be fine. Sheppard's okay, just asleep," Ronon replied, not mentioning the marines; he'd leave that to Sheppard. He knew McKay would feel bad about them being hurt whilst rescuing him. It was the way he was.

"Mmm. Good," he replied sleepily.

"Go back to sleep, McKay."

"Hmm."

And Ronon experienced the rare pleasure of McKay doing as he was told, without argument or complaint.

He grinned.

But then McKay started snoring.

A few days later, and Rodney had been released to light duties, which Beckett had been at pains to tell him meant no more than four hours in the labs each day, no working in his room, plenty of rest and, for goodness sake, no late nights.

Rodney had decided that what Beckett didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and pretty much returned to his normal routine.

Which is why John found him working late in the labs that evening.

"Thought you were supposed to be taking it easy?" he said.

"Hmm. Oh, I am."

"Sure you are," John said disbelievingly.

Rodney just shrugged.

"What do you want anyway?" he asked peevishly.

"Actually, I wanted to talk about…well, you said that the pain dial wasn't working… you know, when…"

"When they were working me over? Yes. It worked, at least to some extent anyway, at first. I mean, the pain was muted. But then it seemed to stop working so well, until eventually it stopped completely," Rodney replied, hardly believing what he was about to suggest. "I hate to say it, but maybe we need to find some way to…I don't know… test it and maybe…erm…do some exercises…"

"Not sure we could without hurting you, and I'm not about to sanction or take part in anything like that. Besides, I think, in a way, it's a good thing."

"What!" McKay looked surprised, and a little hurt at that. "You mean, you'd want me to be in pain?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant," John sighed. "Look, if you dial down the pain too far then you don't know how badly you're being hurt, and I'd much rather you talked than be seriously injured. And," he continued quickly, seeing that McKay was about to interrupt, "If your captors realise you're not in as much pain as you should be they'll probably step up the torture in response and end up hurting you more than they would have otherwise. Possibly even more than they wanted, if they were intending to keep you alive."

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. So, I don't think tests are necessary. Under normal circumstances you can dial it down enough to still know it's there, but for it not to be a major problem, and that's good. The last thing we need is for you to think you're okay when in fact you're not, because you weren't feeling any pain. And in more…extreme circumstances, I think it's better that it doesn't mute the pain too much."

"I…" Rodney looked annoyed, before giving a deep sigh. "You're right. I just don't like pain."

"None of us do, McKay."

And then John smiled in a way that made Rodney worried. No good could come from a smile like that, not from Sheppard anyway.

"So…how many candy bars are you going to give me?"

"What? Why would I be giving you candy?"

"So that I don't tell Beckett I found you in the lab, still working at," he paused to look at his watch meaningfully.

"You wouldn't!"

John's smiled grew.

Oh crap, of course he would, the rat. Rodney gave a put upon sigh; he knew when he was beat.

"How many do you want?"

The End

A/N – There are differing opinions on whether the puddle jumpers have to be uncloaked before going through the stargate or not. It's not something that is obvious from the TV show, but I'm choosing to think they need to be uncloaked. I'm basing this on the fact that in 'Condemned', the jumper that Elizabeth and Lorne is on isn't cloaked until after they leave the wormhole. In fact, Elizabeth says to go to stealth mode as soon as they are through. If it could travel through the wormhole cloaked, surely they would have done so? Of course, this is just my take on it, and I could be proved wrong in the future.