Author's note: The leaves have finally turned colors out here in the belly button of the USA, so a fall story seemed in order. The word you're looking for is: frolicking. That is, if frolicking means wounded Sheppard fighting bad guys in a deserted forest. And I SWEAR I started this story two days before "Missing," so I don't wanna hear no lip about stealing the bolokai. This stand-alone story takes place sometime in season 1-3, just because...it does.
"Significant Figures" is a math term referring to a method of rounding. (don't be insulted, I had to look it up!) I simply like the term for the pun it brings to the story below.
Running. He was still running. Keep going. Stick to the plan.
His fingers were sticky and his shoulders ached from running awkwardly with his hand clamped over the hole in his belly. The hand clenched, and a soft gasp escaped as his feet staggered on the rough, dry, cracked ground underneath the thick, colorful layer of crunchy leaves. He couldn't see the ankle twisting rocks and knee jerking grooves of hard earth under the deceptively smooth natural carpeting. These leaves are killing me, he thought disgustedly, regaining his balance. Then he almost laughed at the absurdity of the phrase.
No, the blood he was still losing in seeping rivulets of wetness, and the bullet still embedded inside in guts somewhere, THEY were killing him, he admitted ruefully.
He clenched his hand again, feeling the saturated fabric of the balled up hem of his t-shirt slip over blood-slicked skin. He needed to find a better bandage - hell, he needed to find a bandage - he needed to put pressure on the wound and try to stop the bleeding. A distant shout, and the unmistakable noises of several pairs of heavy feet also tramping through Autumn's refuse behind him quickened his staggering feet. The accompanying surge of yet another jolt of adrenaline convinced his protesting heart to keep up to the task of pushing what volume it had to work with into relentlessly moving legs. He needed to stop. He had to keep running.
He'd taken the bullet from a distance and at a run. He'd rolled a couple of times from the shock of the impact...then he'd kept running. He'd been running since. At least it doesn't hurt much. The thought was only ironically comforting. He hadn't had time to feel anything. He couldn't afford to feel anything, he added to himself, hearing more shouts. They were gaining on him.
His mind was almost hyper-alert, another useful side effect of adrenaline, and he scanned the forest ahead of him for some route that would offer him safety, or refuge, or - if worse came to worst - a defensible niche to crawl into. He jumped a small creek that crossed his path and thought briefly of turning down it's trickling bed to look for an overhanging bank or to make use of the ankle deep water to hide his up-to-now obvious path through the leaves. Watery mid-afternoon sunlight flickered briefly in his eyes, making him squint as a cheerful beam escaped the thick, but bare, tree branches above him. He kept running, instead, into the sun. Due west. Straight line.
Stick to the plan.
It wouldn't work, anyway, he remembered eventually. They were using McKay's scanner to track his transponder.
He looked at his watch and found it harder to do the math than it should. When he finally convinced his mind to translate the meaningless numbers on thewatch's face into the schedule it should represent, he felt the first flutter of fear. Had it only been that long? It felt like he'd been running for hours, for weeks. Not yet. He couldn't go to ground yet. A little more time. The shouts grew closer.
The Stargate lay at his back. Southeast. They would wonder why he was running in the opposite direction. It was the only way, it had been Rodney's only chance. He had no radio, no way to communicate with his team or Atlantis, but John Sheppard knew it didn't matter.
Teyla would figure it out.
Teyla stepped through the Stargate for the second time that day and found herself morbidly enjoying the carnage that surrounded the portal. This time, the dead and dying laying around them were bandits, not her friends and trading partners from the peaceful village they had originally come to visit. Ronon walked quickly over to her and addressed the second large group of Marines that had followed her from Atlantis.
"Team two, set up a perimeter and hold the 'gate. We don't know how many are still on the planet, but once we start kicking ass they'll probably make a run for home. Keep your eyes open."
"Hold those that surrender for questioning," Lorne added, shooting a wary look at Ronon. Teyla watched the Satedan roll his eyes in feral annoyance, but Ronon didn't contradict the command. He did flick his eyes in her direction and she offered a sympathetic look. The people of Earth were more...conservative...in their treatment of enemies. It was as tedious as it was admirable.
"The rest of you, follow me."
Ronon set out Northeastwards, down the path towards the village, followed by no fewer than 8 heavily armed Atlantis soldiers. Teyla held back just as long as it took to watch a puddle jumper squirt out of the still flickering 'gate, then lowered her head and took off after the others. The jumper climbed rapidly, forced to rise quickly out of the small clearing the Stargate sat within, then zoomed over their heads in aerial escort.
The air was cool and crisp, despite the mid-afternoon time of day, and the breath from the group of men in front of her rose slightly in puffs of cloudy steam. The trees that thickly bordered the path were bare, hinting at the winter to come, but the leaves on the ground still held their color in cheerful contrast. OnAthos , her people would be busy harvesting and storing the fruits of their summer labors at this time in a planet's cycle. John had called it...Apple Weather...and had reminisced long over a childhood memory of throwing the plentiful Earth fruit at unwary girls in his village. The recollection of the pleasant walk with her team only hours ago suddenly brought a knot of anxiety to her stomach. John and Rodney were still out there, somewhere, in the midst of the bandits who had terrorized the villagers and destroyed their homes. Several had been killed as the bandits took what they wished and burned the rest. The survivors had mostly fled, leaving the bandits to revel in their spoils. Minutes after the comfortable walk,Teyla's team had walked unknowingly straight into the hyena's nest.
The radios nestled in the pockets of the team jogging along the forest floor crackled to life, interrupting Teyla's brief moment of contemplation. "Specialist Dex, this is Major Neglee in Jumper 2. We've got 15 bandits in your general area on the jumper's LSD. 5 at your 10 o'clock, 7 at your 12 o'clock in the village. 3 are moving between the groups. There are 6 more about 5kliks West of us in deep forest. They appear to be pursuing one of our guys, I'm getting a transponder signal from the signature out on its own."
Teyla listened furiously to the intel, trying to piece together the information into a picture of the situation. "Do you see another transponder signal, Major? Sheppard and McKay are both out here somewhere." Teyla had her suspicions on which of their missing men would be running alone from a group of hostiles, but it worried her greatly that her teammates weren't together.
"Negative, I'm only reading one transponder. Sir, should I fly to assist?"
Teyla had quickened her steps and caught up to Ronon and Lorne. They exchanged concerned glances. "Why is Sheppard out in the forest alone?" Ronon asked, like her assuming that it was John who would make such a risky move.
"And where is McKay?" Lorne added.
Teyla shook her head in confusion. "I cannot believe that John would leave Rodney behind without a very good reason."
Ronon threw her a closed look, "Maybe McKay didn't make it."
Teyla refused to accept the terrifying speculation, "No. We must assume they are both alive. There has to be some other reason they were forced to split up."
"Perhaps they are together and one of their transponders is malfunctioning?" Lorne chimed in, clearly trying to pose an optimistic suggestion.
"Neglee would see his life signature even without the transponder." Teyla rolled her head in frustration. She was missing something. She suddenly pounced on her radio again, "Neglee, we think the transponder you're picking up is Sheppard. How long before he gets close enough for us to intercept on the ground?"
"He's not en route to the 'gate, ma'am. He's running due West, away from us."
Teyla's eyebrows shot up. He was running away? They had obviously all assumed that John would be running for the 'gate. "He's leading them away," she exclaimed suddenly, fitting the pieces together. "Rodney found a place to hide and John is leading the bandits away from his position."
"Makes sense," Lorne nodded.
"Leading them away from where? We still don't know where McKay is." Ronon's voice was tinged with frustration.
Teyla closed her eyes, picturing the forest, the village and the path in her mind. Due West. John was running West. Why west?
"Neglee. Has Sheppard changed course since you began scanning?" she asked.
"No ma'am. He's going straight as an arrow." Teyla paused again. Again the information was unusual. John was trained to change directions frequently to avoid capture, to throw off pursuit. She added John's course to the image in her mind. The line traced from him back to the path, but did not intersect with the village where she'd seen him last. She stopped walking, completely immersed in furious concentration.
John was leading enemies away from Rodney. Away in a straight line. If they traced that line backwards as she had done in her mind... She pounced on the radio yet again, "Neglee! Are there any structures or buildings or is there anything unusual due East of Sheppard's position? Do you see anywhere someone might take shelter?"
Ronon looked at her with a warily puzzled expression as they waited for Neglee's answer.
"Affirmative," came the Major's voice, sounding excited. "There's a small stone cottage or shed or something well outside the village. Hadn't really noticed it before just now. Looks like a good place to hide out. Pretty secluded."
"That's it," Teyla announced firmly. "Rodney's there. Neglee, can you direct us the quickest way to that cottage?"
"Affirmative, but you'd better hurry. I'm picking up a group of bandits leaving the village heading in that direction. At their current speed, they'll get there before you."
Teyla nodded, turning the mission decisions back over to Ronon who consulted briefly with Lorne. "Jumper 2, intercept the bandits encroaching on McKay's assumed position. Confirm that they're hostiles, then initiate an air strike."
"Yessir." The jumper immediately accelerated away from its hover above their heads, heading North. "Sir, what about Colonel Sheppard. He's still got bandits on his ass too. And I'm picking up a couple of signatures in his path he may not know about..."
Ronon and Teyla exchanged yet another worried look. When Ronon reached for his radio, his hand looked heavy, as if reluctant to initiate the message, "We've got to get to McKay first. Sheppard left him behind for a good reason and we can't let the bandits get there first. We'll get to Sheppard as soon as we can."
"Yessir. We're almost over the bandits now." The voice over the speaker was resigned and tinged with a determination to finish the job as quickly as possible.
"Sheppard can take care of himself," Ronon muttered and Teyla wondered just who exactly he was trying to reassure.
Barely a minute of tense silence passed before several muted explosions disturbed the chilly stillness of the forest. "Bandits confirmed and neutralized,"Neglee shouted, "But you've got five coming in on your 12 o'clock. I've not no sightlines, you'll have to take them on the ground!"
"Understood!" Ronon roared back, quickly deploying his forces while still pressing onward. It took another ten minutes of intense combat to fight their way finally to the stone cottage. The jumper stayed overhead in essential air support, calling out targets and warning those on the ground of some bandits who'd tried to camouflage themselves and were lying in ambush. Teyla had never been so eager to hear an "all clear" in her life and she shouted into her radio even as she was finally dashing towards the stone building they had worked so hard to reach.
"Neglee! Go find Sheppard, lend any air support you can offer and pick him up if you can."
"Yes ma'am!" Neglee sounded equally as happy to follow the command, and the jumper was out of sight before Teyla had even dropped her hand from the radio's button.
She slowed down as she drew up to the little building's single, small door and realized she was breathing heavily from exertion and anxiety. Ronon and the others gathered quickly around her and with a nervous deep breath, she placed her hand on the simple iron handle. Lorne nodded, Teyla yanked the door open wide and they found themselves peering, weapons at the ready, into pure blackness. Stone steps led immediately down from the door into what was clearly an underground cellar or tunnel of some sort. Lorne flicked on his flashlight that sat on the scope of his P-90 and illuminated more stairs and a steeply sloping roof. No one moved for a long moment.
"Rodney? Are you down there?" Teyla finally called out hesitantly. There was a long, tense moment of silent waiting.
"Teyla? Is it really you? Because I really would hate to think I was giving away our position right now if it wasn't you..."
Teyla grinned and blew out an enormous breath in pure relief. "Yes, Rodney. It is really me. Are you OK? Are you injured? Can you come up now?"
"No, I'm fine, but... could you come down here first? They're still afraid of the bandits."
They? Teyla shrugged and flicked on her own flashlight, quickly starting down into the blackness, Ronon and Lorne hard on her heels. The steps descended sharply and Ronon had to duck to avoid cracking open his scull on the slanted, tunnel-like ceiling. At the bottom, Teyla felt the space open out in front of her and she raised her light to illuminate the wide, enormously relieved face of Rodney McKay. He stood beaming and squinting in the sudden light and she returned the wide smile with equal relief. Ronon nudged her from behind and she took another step forward to give him and Lorne room to step out of the stairwell.
Once the room was flooded with the light from three flashlights, Teyla finally looked around and sucked in a startled breath. Six other pale, frightened faces returned her gaze with solemn terror. Rodney quickly walked back to stand next to the young man who was clinging tightly to his young wife. "These are my friends,Aja. Not bandits. You're safe now. We'll help you get offworld to join the rest of your people."
"Yes, of course we will," breathed Teyla, still surprised. She couldn't take her eyes off the four little ones clinging to their father's legs and burying their faces in their mother's skirts. Two little boys and two little girls peeked out at her, their faces painfully somber as they clung to the only security they knew in this dark, scary place.
"So, uh. Where's Sheppard?" Rodney asked at last as no one else seemed to be able to think of anything to say.
Teyla answered with her eyes, and Rodney's narrowed in instant concern. "The jumper just went to get him," Ronon answered.
"He said he was going to lead them away, then double back. Aja brought us to the cellar." Rodney looked awkwardly at the children and Teyla was certain his discomfort was more than his usual dislike of little ones. Sheppard and McKay had put them in more danger by simply being nearby, and Teyla suddenly understood why John would take such a risk as to run alone into deep forest. The littlest began to whimper and tugged at his mother who scooped him up, holding him close to her cheek and murmuring into his ear. "Sheppard didn't like how close thebadguys were snooping around." Rodney added at last, confirming Teyla's thought.
"I can't raise the jumper," Lorne suddenly said, messing with his radio.
"This cellar is shielded. The native rocks around here are naturally high in low-level radiation." Rodney suddenly decided he'd had enough of dark cellars and shouldered his way past Teyla to head up the stairs. Teyla followed him, nodding to herself as another piece of the puzzle fell into place.
"So that is why we did not see your transponder on the LSD," Teyla said.
"Yeah, its a good thing, too. Sheppard and I got caught - briefly - and those bandit barbarians took the hand scanner before I could shut it off. They won't be able to get it to do anything else, but I was scanning for transponder signals at the time, hoping you guys had already come through the 'gate, so..." his voice trailed off with a sigh of exasperation combined with relief. Relief at reaching the sunlit surface again, that is.
"So, they could still be using it to track Sheppard's transponder," Ronon growled, lunging back out into the crisp air himself.
"Jumper 2, this is Teyla. Do you have Sheppard?" She spoke into the radio with a sudden, overwhelming sense of urgency.
There was a long, puzzling silence and Teyla turned towards Ronon and Rodney, locking eyes in worry.
"Negative, sirs." Neglee took a deep frustrated breath that they could all hear even over their tiny speakers. "His transponder isn't showing up on the scans anymore."
Ronon kicked furiously at the ground, sending a shower of bright leaves into the air to flutter wildly in brief flight before settling again.
"We've lost him," Neglee said.