Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. I'm just borrowing them for the moment.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Stargate Atlantis

Season 3- Spoilers for 'Common Ground'

Shades of Grey

His team had been ambushed by the Genii, or so they had told her. The three remaining members of the team also told her how they had been rendered unconscious and how when they had awoken he was no where to be found. This was the reason that they came back to Atlantis. They wanted to re-group and think of a plan to save him. They were in the middle of discussing various search and rescue plans when the gate had activated- bringing them a message from someone whom they thought was dead.

"Kolya?" Elizabeth asked in shock as she tried to mask her emotions as she stared at the face of the man who had nearly taken her away from Atlantis. "What do you want?"

"And how did you get your hands on one of our malps?" Rodney chimed in.

"I wanted to show you something." Kolya answered cryptically.

"What?" Elizabeth asked as she stepped closer to one of the screens. "What are you talking about? Show us-"

"I wanted to be certain that you'd be here to see this-" Kolya was speaking directly to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth alone.

'What does he-?' Elizabeth's thoughts were cut off by the sight of a wraith coming into view.

Before Elizabeth or anyone else could ask what was going on, Kolya stepped out of view to reveal a gagged John Sheppard tied to a chair. Elizabeth's heart stopped and her breath caught in her throat at what happened next.

The wraith, fed upon John.

"John!" The cry was ripped from her throat and Elizabeth felt her heart plunging into her stomach.

The rest of the people in the control were at a loss for words as they watched the military commander of Atlantis have years of his life stripped away from them. Elizabeth could sense that his team wanted to do something, but she knew that they couldn't- but maybe she could.

"Kolya- stop!" Elizabeth pleaded. "Please-"

Her voice broke with emotion and as she was stunned into silence the wraith suddenly stopped feeding on John. Elizabeth glanced at the time index and saw that the five seconds that the wraith had fed upon John had seemed like an eternity. The wraith was pulled out of view and as Elizabeth pushed down her panic she looked directly at John and saw with horror that his once jet-black hair was now streaked with grey and that the stubble on his chin was also grey.

Elizabeth watched as John collapsed within the restraints, his head falling to his chest. To those in the control room, her face had turned into a stone mask, but for those who looked into her eyes, they saw a whirlwind of emotion within them.

'He seems so broken….' Elizabeth thought sadly, a tear rising in her eye. 'I promise you John, I will do anything to get you back….no matter what the cost.' Elizabeth took a deep breath and spoke.

"Kolya, what do you want?"

Fin.

A/N- Hello again, a two page drabble that was written before I saw Common Ground. I got it from the promo on sci-fi and let me say that Common Ground was a kick-ass episode...even if John did get majorly whumped. Hope you enjoyed it, please review and read and review my other stories if you have the time.