Shifting Shadows - R. Dex

-16-

John Sheppard dragged Ronon Dex through the event horizon as the medical team rushed into the gate room. "He took a knife to the chest, a few hits from some kind of nasty whip. He's lost a lot of blood," John explained as Carson helped get Ronon on the gurney.

"Right. To surgery then. And Jules?"

"Besides being covered in blood and covering the gate room floor in God knows what?" Rodney asked, huffing from the run to the gate.

The men looked to Jules, who'd collapsed to her knees on the floor and was vomiting from shock. "She's in bad shape but not dying. At least I don't think she is right now," John said with a brow raised in uncertainty.

"I'll focus on him, then." Carson turned his attention to a nurse nearby. "Let me know once she's settled in a bed. I'll get her checked out as soon as he's stable, unless you find something urgent."

As Carson hurried off, John followed the doctor with his eyes as the nurse moved toward Jules. A shout quickly drew his attention to the nurse, who Jules had pinned to the floor, arm pressed hard to her neck.

"Jules?" John eased toward them as Teyla rose from the ground nearby. "What happened?"

"She attempted to assist the Captain but when she touched her shoulder..."

"So we're back to the no-touching thing?" Rodney muttered.

John gave Rodney a disapproving look and stepped closer to the women on the floor. "Hey, Jules, take it easy. She's just trying to help."

Jules's chest rose and fell in short, tense, rapid bursts. Her body ached, her muscles coiled with fear. She was disoriented, and the buzzing all around her felt foreign when it should've brought comfort, knowing Atlantis was the only place in the galaxy that felt like this. She knew she was home, but everything felt...jarring. Surreal. Her head was starting to hurt from all of the noise. At John's voice - it was John's voice, wasn't it? - she didn't withdraw from the heartbeat - the person - beneath her. She held steady in her grip, though she also resisted the urge to press down further and cut off all air. Despite the pulse she could feel-

Pulse.
Blood.
So much blood.

John was concerned at her lack of response. It was like Jules was stuck - stuck in her head, in Feo's bunker. Trauma. He tried a new tactic and appealed to the soldier in her, the one who would willingly take orders. He barked out, "Captain O'Keefe, let her go. Step back."

Jules's face twitched like she'd been struck. She was supposed to respond, follow orders, but every part of her body screamed for self-preservation. She couldn't-

"Stand down, Captain O'Keefe. That's an order."

John strode swiftly to her side, intending to remove her from atop the nurse but she was faster. Jules pivoted quickly, pulling the knife from its sheath on his leg. He reached for her wrist but she slashed at him, making him retreat.

"Don't touch me!" John's eyes locked with Teyla's for a second as Jules shouted, scrambling backward across the floor until the buzzing of the walls was so close to her back, she could almost feel it.

"Captain, put down the knife." Elizabeth Weir's calm but commanding voice echoed through the gate room as she eased down the stairs.

Jules flinched but didn't follow the order, knife held aloft, ready to strike. She could feel her body shaking with adrenaline and fear, and her attempts to control it, to hide her weakness, only made it worse.

John wasn't sure it was possible, but it seemed to him that Jules's breathing was becoming even faster and more labored. She was panicked, shifting every few seconds on her feet, ready to fight or flee as needed.