Ficathon entry - Falling 2/4
Title: Falling
Author: Michele Cross
Rating/Pairing: PG/None
Characters: The team
Summary: The First Quarterly Ficathon Written story for Tridget, who shepwhump, team, puddlejumper scene.
O-o-o-o-o-O
Elizabeth sighed as she tapped her radio and broke contact with Teyla.
“Is there a problem, Ma’am?” Chuck had been watching her and noticed how worried she was. He had just come on duty with the mid-morning change over and the previous shift cover had not mentioned that there was a problem.
“Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay took up a jumper to the mainland; they’re not answering any hails and we have no idea where they are. John did say en route there was a problem with the jumper.” She filled him in quickly before tapping her earpiece. “Major Lorne.”
“Yes, Doctor?” His voice came through clearly.
“We may have a situation developing. Gather your team and bring them to my office for a briefing. Doctor Beckett and some of his team will be going with you.” She told him. She then briefed Carson Beckett on the little they knew about the situation. Before he logged off she could hear her Chief Medical Officer giving out his orders.
“Would you like me to ask Doctor Zelenka to see if he can find them with their subcutaneous transmitters, Doctor?” Chuck asked from his position at his monitor base.
“Good thinking, Chuck I really think that would help.” She nodded at him as she turned to greet Evan Lorne and his team.
Fifteen minutes later Chuck had sent out another call to John and Rodney and again received nothing back again. Carson had joined them with two of his team, a nurse and a technician, both of whom he trusted more than any others on this mission.
Then another five minutes and they were taking off, ready to try and find their missing team mates.
O-o-o-o-o-O
The first thing Rodney was aware of was pain. Pain in his wrist, pain in his neck and head and the groan of broken ribs.
“Wha’?” The sound of his own voice made his head ache. The only other sound was the occasional pop and crack of electrical cords. They were the only things that would occasionally light up the darkness.
Rodney cleared his throat and the flash of fire that seemed to shoot through his chest and up to his head made him wince and groan.
“What ‘appened? Anyone there?” He called out, not sure that he really wanted to know what ‘here’ really was and if he wanted to move at all given that his back and chest were vying for his attention.
There was no answer and he tried to reach out with his good hand to see if there was anything that he could feel about him. That met with nothing other than broken glass and pieces of plastic.
With a sigh he settled back. Where was he? On Atlantis? He tried to recall the last thing that had happened and was met with a big fat nothing. He rubbed at his aching head and sighed once more only stopping when he was met with the stickiness of congealed blood. Great he had a head injury, he also couldn’t recall what he had been doing or even if he had been with anyone.
Great, just brilliant, he was going to die here all alone and no one would be able to tell Elizabeth or John where he was.
Of course! Memory slammed home. His earpiece! He could tell them where he was with his earpiece. He tried to reach up to his left ear with his right hand and winced, stopping his movements right away. He reached over with his left hand to feel the right wrist and winced when he touched the limb, it was rather obviously broken. Great, wonderful, he was right handed and did everything with that limb. The next few weeks were going to be fun. Not.
He reached up to his ear once again with his left hand this time, not stopping the groan of pain as he did so. He was hurting pretty badly now and movement wasn’t helping that. Determination not to be left in the dark as he was; stirred and he gritted his teeth and raised his good hand and went to tap the radio that sat in his ear.
The ear was empty and Rodney could have groaned with frustration. In fact there was a groan only this time he realised it wasn’t from him. He wasn’t alone!
“W… who’s there?” His voice wavered as he tried to project it into the darkness.
The only reply was another groan and Rodney decided that perhaps he should risk moving and further damaging his neck and risking Carson’s ire. He had to find out where he was and who he was with.
He decided to try calling out once more.
“Who’s there?” He was pleased that his voice was somewhat stronger than it had been previously.
“M’ky?” The voice sounded weak from out of the darkness.
“John?!” It was an exclamation now as he recognised the voice.
“D’nt shout.” It was an obvious plea from the other man.
“Sorry. Where are you? What happened?” Rodney found himself a little stronger now that he knew he wasn’t alone. It had always been one of his nightmares, that he would die alone in the dark. He was just glad that he wasn’t fulfilling that particular dream...yet.
It was met with another groan.
“You’re hurt.” His voice was quiet. “I didn’t mean to shout, I’m sorry.”
“jumper… crashed.” John’s voice sounded so weak it made him wince.
“We’re in a jumper? Were the others with us?” Rodney felt panic rise in him once more. He hadn’t thought to look around and check if the others were with him, he was so selfish sometimes! If Teyla and Ronon were on board and injured as well…
“J…just us. Y… you hurt, Ro’ney?” John’s voice trembled as he spoke.
“Oh… right.” Rodney was more confused than ever, why would they be alone in the jumper and not with their friends and team mates? “I’ve hurt my neck and I think I’ve bumped my head pretty badly.”
“S…Stay there. D…don’t move. I… I’ll make my way to you.” John told him weakly.
“No! Wait a minute, how badly are you hurt?” Rodney couldn’t let him move if he was badly hurt and knowing his friend as he did, John would try to hide it anyway.
“I… I’m ok. Bumped head too, maybe some ribs but I can move to get to you.” John was trying to make his voice stronger in an effort to make Rodney think he was ok. It failed.
“Maybe I should be the one…” He was stopped by soft cursing mixed with groans.
“You’re moving, aren’t you? Carson will have my head if you hurt yourself more. It will be all my fault.” Rodney groaned.
“Shut up, Rodney.” John’s voice was nearer than it had been. “If I recall there should be a flashlight just about…” Suddenly there was bright light and Rodney closed his eyes with a groan as the pain in his head spiked even more. “Here. You sure you’re ok, Rodney?” John asked worriedly.
His friend was just a little too quiet for his liking. Rodney should be in the middle of one of his usual panic attacks not laying there so quietly as he was. Perhaps he had been justified in getting up and coming to Rodney’s aid.
Rodney slowly opened his eyes blinking away the flashes the sudden light had caused. Then he got the first good look at the man who, against all the odds had fast become his best friend. It still felt so good to say that. His best friend. Despite that, he couldn’t hold back the horrified look that he shot his friend.
That best friend was swaying on his feet. His usual unruly hair was even more so apart from one side which was flattened. Then Rodney realised why it was flattened because that side of John’s face was covered in blood. The rest of John’s face was so white it looked ghostly. His nose had also been bleeding at some point. The blood had flowed down and over his chin as one would have thought happened with vampires after they had finished with their victim.
John also had a cut high on the left side of his cheek that looked as if it was still bleeding. He was also holding his right arm tightly to his side.
“I think that you should sit down before you fall down.” Rodney told him gently patting the ground beside him.
“I need to make sure we’re safe.” John told him with determination. “We might need decamp…”
“You might end up on your ass.” Rodney told him arching his eyebrow. Then he winced, the skin on his face pulling and causing him unexpected pain.
“I need to…” John wavered where he was standing the flashlight causing shadows about the damaged craft.
“Sit before you fall!” Rodney finished for him.
“I really need to…” John grimaced and then swallowed sharply.
“Don’t you barf on me!” Rodney suddenly realised what just might be happening here.
John didn’t answer and just took a wavering step forward. “I…” He looked around but Rodney wasn’t sure what it was that he was seeing.
Another step and he was close enough for Rodney to reach out and grab a trouser leg. It was wet to the touch, he filed that away for later reference. He pulled with all his might, toppling the precarious man to his knees with a pained groan. “Sorry, sorry, I needed to get you sitting down. I need to…”
John turned his head as far away from Rodney as he could and threw up the meagre contents of his stomach.
“Ewwwwww that’s just so disgusting!” Rodney couldn’t help the cry that left his lips.
Not that John Sheppard heard he was too busy trying to stop and stay upright at the same time.
Finally he stopped and panting turned back to Rodney. “Sorry, tried to get out.” His hand wavered as he touched his head and winced.
“It’s not your fault. We need to get the med kit.” Rodney suddenly realised that his neck while still hurting wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it had been, he wasn’t sure if that was good or not, really.
At his comment John tried to stand again, though.
“Stay!” He told John holding onto his pants leg. “I didn’t say you had to get it!”
“M’ not a dog.” The look he shot Rodney would have frozen a person on sight. “I c…”
“No you can’t. I’m sorry, John but I think you’re more injured than you’ve told me. I need you to sit properly and then not move. Can you do that?” His voice was filled with regret he knew how much his friend hated not being in control of a situation.
“Yeah.” John blinked at him the hazel eyes full of pain.
“Good.” Rodney felt his heart drop. John was hurting. Hurting a great deal more than he was trying to let on. They had all learned this over the last few years, learned to read John Sheppard when he was ill or injured. That was why there was the ‘Sheppard watch’ back on Atlantis.
It had to have been something in John’s past that had caused this. The need to hide from others that he was ill or injured. Not that they would ever know that, John would never tell them. All Rodney knew was that one of these days he would meet with John’s parents and he was going to say a few choice words to them when he did. That was if they were still alive.
It had been one of the things that had been noticed at the end of the first year on Atlantis. All of them had recorded messages to send back to their loved ones; Rodney had also sent messages back to Earth. Jeannie would never know though, he still had the stupid tape and with luck it would never see the light of day, but John had sent no such message. The only message he had sent had been to Colonel Sumner’s family. He had also mentioned that there were some with no family…
Just that made Rodney shiver, the thought that John might not have had anyone to turn to when he was ill or in trouble of any sort. Like the time John had almost been discharged from the Air force for misconduct, had he had any family there to stand by him, to encourage him and support him or had he stood all on his own?
“Now, before I move and sort the pack out, where else are you hurt other than your head and ribs? I want the truth this time, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.” Rodney told him sternly, trying to hide how concerned he was for his friend.
“Hit head hard, knocked out and seein’ two o’ you.” John winced as he took in his friends face. Rodney was pale with a rivulet of blood running down the right side of his face. “I think I bumped my nose.”
“It looks as if you broke your nose let alone bumped it!” Rodney broke in.
“It does?” John sounded confused as he reached up to touch at his nose wincing once again,
“Don’t touch it!” Rodney told him reaching out with his good hand to stop the shaking one before him.
John just blinked at him in confusion. “Anything else that hurts?” Rodney kept his voice as calm as he could.
“My leg.” John admitted and reached out for the leg he had been favouring and it was the one that Rodney had been aware of earlier.
“Yes, I need to look at that for you, it’s been bleeding pretty heavily by the looks of it.” Rodney kept his voice as calm as he could. He didn’t want John panicking and trying to get up thinking he needed to help Rodney when he wasn’t in the position to help him.
How he had remained so relatively uninjured he wasn’t sure of, but at this minute he was very glad that he was. John needed help and the only one who could help him right now was Rodney and help his friend he would, the best that he could.
He was just glad that John had dragged him albeit screaming and kicking to the first aid lectures that Carson Beckett made all the people on off-world teams attend. Rodney would admit, and had said as much to John, that he thought it was a waste of time when he had so many other important things to attend to… Now he was pleased he had been made to go, if he could only make John more comfortable he would never miss one again.
He moved and couldn’t stop the hiss of pain that left his lips.
“McKay?” Wide hazel eyes locked on to him.
“Just a little sore. When I’ve done tending to you, you can splint my arm.” As they had been talking it had all started to come back as to what had happened.
“Your arm?” John asked him puzzled and he reached out with a shaking hand to touch the hand nearer to him.
“I broke it, remember? Before the crash?” Now Rodney really was worried.
“Oh yeah, o’ course.” John looked away from Rodney but it didn’t fool him. No way did it fool him.
“You don’t recall it do you?” Rodney asked quietly.
“Not really. I must’ve really hit my head, everything’s so fuzzy at the moment.” John admitted.
“Ok hand me the flashlight, I’m gonna see if I can get us some light here and then I’ll take a good look at you.” This time Rodney made it to his feet and to the side of the jumper where the electrics were based on the jumper.
It was ten minutes before light finally flashed on in the troubled craft. By that time Rodney was shaking with pain and shock and it was a relief to grab the med kit and make his way back to his ailing friend.
The fact that John hadn’t even tried to help him get the power back and/or had complained at all was like a siren sounding around him. John Sheppard would never just sit back and let Rodney work if he knew that Rodney, his friend, was hurt.
It was a relief to sit back down beside his friend. “Right let me see what we have here…”
John shuffled to sit beside his friend.
“Can you lean down so I can see your head?” Rodney asked. John did as requested and within seconds he was looking at the top of John’s head. He winced, glad that John couldn’t see his actions. He just couldn’t help it. The cut was long and deep and would undoubtedly need several stitches when they eventually were rescued. “I need to clean this for you.” Luckily there was some water and iodine in the med kit he pulled them out along with a pressure bandage. John might look a little ridiculous with the bow under the chin but it was the better than anything else.
“There that should help. I bet you have one heck of a headache though.” Rodney tried to get John talking. All he got was a grunt in reply. “Let me see what else you’ve managed to do to yourself this time.” Rodney continued as if nothing had happened. “Lift your shirt?”
In the end Rodney had had to help John undo his tac vest, John just could not concentrate with the headache and double vision, not that Rodney was much better with his own wounded wing.
What he saw made him wince, again. John had obviously hit the control board and hit it hard. The bruise started from just under the collar bone on his right side and spread out to encompass his stomach.
“That has got to hurt.” Rodney winced in sympathy.
“Bit.” John looked at him owlishly.
Rodney nodded and reached for the heat activated ice pack. He pressed the activation button and waited. Finally it was ready. “Hold that there.” He handed the pack to John and placed his hand over it so that it was held in place. “Does your back hurt any?” Even as he spoke Rodney suddenly recalled that he needed to look into John’s eyes and see if there was any sign of hidden brain injury. But given the dim lighting in the damaged ship there was little that he could do about that right now.
“Little.” John tried to shake his head and winced freezing into place.
“I wouldn’t do that, John it’s not a good idea.” This from the only coherent man in the jumper that also had a head injury. “Let me see your back.”
John tried to help him but there was very little that he could do.
“You’ve a large bruise forming. You probably hit your back on the way back.” Hit it hard if the bruise was showing in the dark. Then he noticed something that made him freeze. “You didn’t tell me that you were bleeding from your ear!”
John turned to look at him blinking fast as if to blink away fuzzy vision. “I have?”
“Yes you have.” Rodney confirmed and tried not to roll his eyes and sigh. It wasn’t John’s fault that he wasn’t compos mentis at the moment, he had more of a head injury than Rodney had thought. He really needed to get John to Carson. “Come on and let me see your leg and then you can look at my arm.”
“Ok.” John readily agreed.
Rodney could only shake his head at the compliance that he was getting from his usually stubborn friend it was so rare and actually scared him more than he realised. John was just never this compliant, ever. He hated admitting to anything that seemed to be seen as weakness and this could certainly be seen as being weak.
Rodney used the small scissors that came with every med kit to cut away the pants leg and what he saw had him looking up at his friend in amazement and horror. “You tried to walk on this?”
If Sheppard’s leg wasn’t broken he would be surprised.
He got no answer and thinking nothing of it he carried on cleaning the large wound that surrounded what looked to him to be bone, but he wasn‘t that kind of Doctor, this particular diagnosis could be left down to Carson.
“I’m going to have to wrap this leg tightly, John it’s bleeding too much.” Rodney still didn’t get a reply and he looked up in time to catch John as he continued his slide into Rodney’s arm. “John?!”
There was no reply from the pallid man in his arms, not that he was truly expecting one. It would have been very nice, mind you.
“Carson is so going to kill me, I‘m meant to be keeping you awake.” He gently laid John down on their expedition jacket’s and covered him with the emergency blanket out of the wonderful med kit. “Perhaps I can find out if we can contact Elizabeth. That wo…” He was just standing when the lights in the jumper wavered and then shut down all together. “Crap what now?!”
On to Part 3