Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

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The Lost Boys
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"This is ridiculous," McKay grumbled as he brushed aside a long, leaf covered limb and clambered after Sheppard through yet another alien forest.

"Keep complaining about it and we may get there faster," John snarked back at the scientist.

None of them were having fun hiking through the dense underbrush, but McKay's complaining wasn't making the trip any easier. John was already feeling a little winded and he cursed his weakness and pushed his body faster. He wasn't willing to admit to any of them least of all himself that he was struggling to set the pace. It was only his second mission back after the three months it had taken him to recover from the retrovirus. He had been back in the gym for the last month but it had been harder than he wanted to admit. He had only started lightly sparring in the last couple weeks and although he had passed the physical requirements for an off world active team member he was no where near his normal self physically.

"Couldn't we have met these people on a tropical beach planet populated by tall blonde women? Eh?" McKay asked, though in his observation it seemed like the Colonel went in for short, curvy dark haired women these days. Although he would never be brave enough to say anything about it out loud.

"Whoever wants to speak with us obviously values their privacy," Teyla soothed from behind the squabbling friends.

"Yes, well I value my time and this is a waste of it," McKay whined.

"What's a waste of time, is listening to you Rodney. This is the mission," John admonished sharply.

"Yes well, it strikes me that this is a mission better suited to one of the lower echelon teams," McKay grunted as he climbed over a large log.

"Lower echelon?" Ronon asked, his voice rumbling from behind the group.

"He means to say, less important," Teyla filled in.

"We got a tip from one of Teyla's contacts, we're following it up," John said firmly.

"Oh what, this is like the upteenth tip we've followed up in search of a ZPM and none of them have panned out."

"Rodney-" Teyla started to say. She could sense that Sheppard was losing his patience. The team was still working on getting back
in its rhythm after the Colonel's lay-off and McKay, as usual, wasn't helping matters.

McKay huffed, but he wasn't willing to fight with Teyla the same way he squabbled with Sheppard. "I just want to make it clear that every second that I am out of my lab is a second the galaxy goes without another groundbreaking-"

The flash of stunners hit McKay and Teyla first. John whirled as Teyla cried out. His hand dropped to his gun as two shots hit Ronon in the chest. Ronon fought against them and they fired a third time before turning the stunner to him. John lifted his gun at the same
time two shots hit him square in the chest and everything went dark.

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John woke up with a pounding headache. He was tied to a chair with a hood over his head. He pulled experimentally at the bonds around his wrists, but they were tight. He kept his body relaxed and leaning forward against them, so they wouldn't know he was awake as he slowly rotated his wrists, trying to see if he could wiggle them loose. There was no such luck. Whoever had tied them knew exactly what they were doing.

He didn't have long to wait before someone jerked the hood off his head. He pulled back, shaking it off. His team was all sitting with him, also tied to chairs lining what looked like a large banquet table sitting in the middle of a cave. There were plates of food and goblets sitting at each of their places. He frowned and glanced around. There were five men standing at attention behind them, but none of them spoke or reacted to their prisoners.