Broken
John Sheppard, this picture and life I feel sad to tear away from you.
Enjoy the story, I don't own anything in this story.
They had taken a team picture after their last battle that ended with victory; it had been Sheppard's command that they do it before their next off world mission. Now, though, it was all they had of him. When the picture had been taken Sheppard had collapsed, frantically they called Jennifer and were told that John had been poisoned by some plant on the last planet that had somehow infected one of his open wounds from a mission prior that had reopened from the fight with the wraith.
It had been devastating to the team to watch John dying so quickly with no way to save him. The days they fought and did everything in their power to find a cure or a possible way to slow it down to give them more time did not work.
That first night had been almost normal for the colonel, but by morning Sheppard had became nearly green from trying to eat anything. The poison had shut down his body's need for food and water. Though Jennifer had been able to still give him IV for two days after this, but any attempts to give John any food in any form ended with the colonel in a massive seizure.
The second day John had started to show signs of deterioration. His right leg slowly being eaten away the first day without anyone realizing it until Jennifer found it the second day. To her horror she told them that it would be impossible to fix and if they did not amputate it it would only increase John's death. The team nodded understanding, but after the surgery they all knew that John Sheppard would never be the same if he lived.
The third day Rodney Mckay had a collapsed due to exhaustion and starvation. The whole team felt that it was getting more and more impossible to save John. It was nearly in the middle of the day that Jennifer had hunted them down to tell them that the situation had gotten worse. The poison had started attacking John's heart. He had less than a day to live. Then she told them he was also in induced coma. The team felt that it was finally time to say goodbye.
The fourth day Atlantis personal gave John a far well. It had been a day to mourn and a day to remember him until they were told by Woosley that John had passed away. It had been a harsh blow to the whole expedition to lose such a friend and comrade.
I wanted you to know I love the way you laugh
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away
I keep your photograph; I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain
Atlantis listened as the song began to play for no reason at all. Those in the control room and John's team listened, wondering where this had come from. The music seemed to connect to them all before they did not mind where or who was playing it for them.
'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
'cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel light when you're gone away
The music seemed to sooth most of those who knew this song fit the situation, others began to realize more that they had lost a friend that they cherished. The team knew at that moment that in that moment nothing could ever return what they had just lost.
The worst is over now and we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away
There's so much left to learn, and no one left to fight
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain
The music played almost as if it was on repeat for no matter how many times it ended it would start up again in the minds of those around them.
They looked at the picture that they all had to remember him and knew he would never return. Smiling they set the team picture, their last memories of them being a team, and turned to look at the gate.
'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
and I don't feel like I am strong enough
'cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
and I don't feel light when you're gone away
'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
and I don't feel like I am strong enough
'cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
and I don't feel light when you're gone away
John Sheppard died a year ago to this day, and still Atlantis stood and the song played on his day, the day they, the expedition, gave in morning.
Atlantis, the lost city, mourned with them all and had found an Earth song brought to her door for one of her own. It found and played the song again for Colonel John Sheppard and it kept doing the Job he had been doing since he came to her.
'Protect them in my absence'
That was all he had spoken in his dying thoughts, it was the last thing, command, that he had given.