Disclaimer: I certainly don't own or profit from Stargate Atlantis. This story is strictly for entertainment purposes only!

Trusting Me

Author's Note: First, this is the sequel to my first story, Becoming Me. It's set in Season 2, so everything up to the season finale is fair game for being mentioned, especially Critical Mass. Thanks to all the awesome feedback last time, a sequel has come to mind, though I'm posting as its written this time, so it'll probably be up to a week between parts. Special thanks to a suggestion by Krows Scared, who pushed me to write outside my comfort zone! This is a busy time for my beta (My sister, without whom this never would have happened!) and me, so we'll see how it goes. As always, reviews and suggestions are appreciated!

Thoughts are in italics, and Allie's comments are in 'single quotation'.

Chapter 1: Not Again! John's POV

"Just dial the damned gate!"

I didn't bother to hide my fatigue and annoyance, even though I knew McKay was just as tired and ten times as irritable. This mission had been a complete farce from start to finish, and I wanted nothing more then to crawl into bed and sleep for at least a day. Not that I had a chance in hell of actually doing that. Unfortunately, my team genius didn't seem to be in a similar hurry. Instead, he was on his back in the mud, head stuck into the DHD, which he should have been dialing. Just then, his balding head popped out, shooting me an exhausted glare.

"Unless you want to wind up back in time or in another galaxy, you'll give me a minute to check this!" At my blank look, Rodney's eyes rolled. "Lightning! Massive energy charges hitting the gate and doing all kinds of fun things!"

Red face, eyes round with fatigue and disgust, topped by a glare that dared any of us to comment further. Yep, McKay was in great shape. Throttling back my urge to throttle him, I just gave a weary wave of acceptance and turned my regard to my other two team members. We all looked like drowned rats, really, even the seemingly unflappable former runner, Ronon. It was just supposed to have been a nice, easy reconnaissance, looking for a back-up to the Alpha site, just in case.

However, we were SGA-1, and nothing could ever be that easy for us, especially since the last five weeks of missions had all been calm. After all, we had to keep up the grand tradition of SG-1, right? Make the simplest missions impossibly complicated, give the brass plenty of headaches over our bizarre close calls, find trouble without meaning to, and end with yet another trip to the infirmary for one or more of the team.

In this case, it was an anomalous reading that had us trekking for several hours, only to be caught by a sudden severe thunderstorm. With no possible shelter anywhere nearby, of course. This entire planet seemed to be on endless, hilly plain, which made for a sleepless night huddled in the lowest spot we could find. Then came morning and the trek back to the gate, made three times longer by continuing rain, McKay's mouth, and a nasty wind. Blowing right in our faces, of course.

Gee, John, how could you ever forget all this fun?

"McKay..." A low, rumbling growl.

"Fine! Here we go!" Rodney's hand started slamming down on symbols, a move that would have landed anyone else in deep trouble with the astrophysicist. I was just too tired to call him on it, though.

If he breaks it, I get to kill him. Then Ronon and Teyla get to kill him. Then...

Thankfully, my mental plans were interrupted by the reassuring whoosh of the wormhole opening, just as it was supposed to. It only took a minute for me to tap in my IDC code and all four of us, soaked, cold, exhausted, covered in mud, trooped through...

Straight into chaos.

I barely had time to register the dancing lighting, random door movements, and sirens before I was dropped to the floor by pure emotion. Joy, anger, fear, frustration, panic... Wave after wave, almost faster then I could identify them, along with the needle sharp pain that stabbed right through my skull, making movement impossible.

"Not again! Allie...!" It came out as a moaning plea, darkness claiming me before I could say anything else.