Date : 09.09.2007
Title : Loves' Price Of Freedom
Author : ElaineDex
Chapter : 1 of ?
Rating : M
Pairings : Lt. Col. John Sheppard/Lyssa Sheppard
Major Evan Lorne/Dr Ellie Lorne
Warnings : Romance/Angst/hurt.
Spoilers : This story is part of a series and follows on from Love's Past and Present.
Feedback : Yes
Disclaimer : Dr Ellie Lorne, Major James Reece, Lt Franks and any OC's are mine. Lyssa Hunter-Sheppard belongs to Kazavid. Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately, has nothing to do with me.
Summary : When a vengeful ex-member of Atlantis returns to the city what has Lyssa got to do to ensure the safety of Sheppard and her friends before freedom from a deadly obsession is finally hers?
Ellie and Lorne had only been married for six short months but already Ellie was stupidly beginning to worry that Lorne was going off her.
It had all started a few weeks ago when both Lorne's and Sheppard's teams had found a small off-world village inhabited by only women. They had found it strange but on further investigation they had discovered that the men of the village had been taken by the Wraith a few months earlier.
Lorne, Sheppard, Ronon, Major Reece, Lt. Franks plus some of the other marines from Atlantis had volunteered to help re-build the women's homes for them and they had been returning to the village in their spare time to do just that.
The only thing was, Lorne had been spending more time there than was absolutely necessary….at least that was the way Ellie saw it.
As he got ready to go to the village once more with Reece, Ellie said to him,
"Do you have to go today? Wouldn't you like to spend the morning in bed with me?" and she sidled up to him wrapped in just the bed sheet and pressed herself against him.
She frowned when he gently shrugged her off so that he could bend to tie his boot laces.
"Sorry Elle but there's still a lot of work to be done at the village", he said and Ellie moved away from him and sat on the edge of the bed sulkily.
"But you've spent all of your free time there for the past three weeks…..when are you going to spend some time with me?" she asked and Lorne turned to look at her.
"Those women need our help…..do you just want me to forget that they're there so that we can spend the morning in bed?" he asked, looking at her in a way he never had before…as though she was being selfish.
"No…..I just meant…..", Ellie tried to explain but Lorne grabbed his jacket and moved toward the door.
"I'll see you later, I need to meet Major Reece", he said and then left their room leaving Ellie sat open-mouthed.
She sighed and began to get dressed quickly. If this village was so damn important to her husband then maybe she could go with him and help him somehow.
She raced to the gate room only to find she had just missed them and the gate was just shutting down.
"Damn it", she muttered.
"Hey Ellie, what's up?", Sheppard asked as he and Lyssa approached her, holding hands and Ellie was pleased to see that at least they were still in honeymoon mode.
"I wanted to go with Evan to the village but I just missed him and Reece.
"Did someone mention my name?", a deep voice from behind Ellie said and she turned to see Major Reece approaching them.
"I thought you were going to the village with Evan", Ellie said sounding confused and Reece nodded.
"I was going to but I had some stuff to do here. Hey, I'd watch him if I were you Doc, there's this real cute little red-head out there who seems to have taken quite a liking to the Major", his voice was light-hearted but it was not what Ellie wanted to hear and though she smiled Lyssa could see that something was bothering her friend.
She turned to Sheppard.
"We're not doing anything now are we? I'd like to see this village and how it's shaping up. Could we not go for a look around?"
Ellie threw her an 'I am going to love you forever' look as Sheppard rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"I guess we could…..I'll just go clear it with Weir", he said.
As soon as he and Reece had moved away, Lyssa grabbed Ellie's arm.
"Okay…what's going on?", she asked warily as Ellie looked at her worriedly.
"Are you and John still, you know……?", she asked.
"Hell yeah….every day, more or less", Lyssa replied, smiling broadly and then realised that that was not the answer Ellie was looking for and she wiped the smile from her face quickly.
"I take it you and Evan aren't", she said and Ellie nodded glumly.
"Not since he started spending all his time helping at this bloody village. I was getting suspicious but now with Reece saying what he did…….do you think Evan is having an affair?", she asked.
Sheppard, who had been approaching from behind Ellie, stopped in his tracks as he heard her last words and his eyes widened as he looked at Lyssa. He did not want to get involved in a crisis that only another woman knew how to deal with and he silently indicated to Lyssa that they had the go-ahead for in ten minutes time.
Lyssa looked away from Sheppard and back to Ellie.
"Evan wouldn't do that to you Ellie….he's crazy about you. Lets just go to the village and see what's going on before you jump to any more conclusions okay?".
Ellie nodded and they went their separate ways to go and get ready.
OOoOO
Sheppard, Lyssa and Ellie entered the village a short while later to find it was looking all but done and Ellie frowned as she remembered Lorne saying earlier that morning that there was still lots to be done.
Had he been lying to her?
She glanced around to see if she could see anything of him but he was nowhere to be found.
Sheppard shouted to one of the village women who was planting some things in her new garden.
"Hi. We're looking for Major Lorne, have you seen him around this morning?".
The woman smiled warmly and pointed toward a house further along.
"He is with Simone", she replied and Sheppard waved in thanks.
"Simone being the red-head I presume", Ellie said through gritted teeth as they headed further along the small row of newly built homes.
Lyssa and Sheppard exchanged a glance and Sheppard sighed in relief as they saw Lorne come out of the house in question carrying a piece of wood. He had not been looking forward to having to hide Atlantis' alcohol rations if anything had gone wrong this time between Ellie and Lorne.
"We'll just be looking around", Lyssa said, guessing that her friend would want to talk to Lorne in private at first.
Ellie nodded and approached Lorne who looked up, surprised to see her.
"Hey….what're you doing here?", he said and Ellie looked at him closely as she tried to assess whether he was pleased that she had shown up or not.
"I came with Lyssa and Sheppard. Lyssa wanted to see the village and I wondered if I could help in any way", she said and Lorne nodded.
"I'm just building a wardrobe for Simone", he said and as if on cue, the petite red-head who was extremely pretty, much to Ellie's annoyance, appeared on the doorstep of the house.
"Can I get you a drink Evan?", she called out and then said, "Oh…hello", as she spotted Ellie.
"You must be one of the women from Atlantis", she guessed and Ellie smiled as she replied,
"One of them, yes" and she turned to Lorne as he said,
"This is Ellie, Ellie this is Simone".
Ellie glared at Lorne because he hadn't introduced her as his wife and she became even more agitated when Simone came over and placed a hand on Lorne's arm and it became obvious that Simone was in fact pregnant.
"Evan has been so good to me over the last couple of weeks, I really don't know how I would have coped without him", she said, smoothing a hand over her small bump and Ellie had to force herself to remain calm and just smile as Lorne came over all bashful and laughed at Simone's praise.
"Oh, where are my manners….would you like a drink too Ellie?", Simone said and Ellie nodded just to get rid of the other woman for a moment.
When she was out of earshot she said,
"No wonder you've been so eager to get back here all the time. She's very pretty".
"I hadn't noticed", Lorne replied as he measured out the piece of wood and Ellie laughed.
"Yeah right, of course you hadn't. Did you also 'not' notice that she is pregnant?".
"What are you getting at Ellie?", Lorne asked feeling annoyed.
He had wanted to finish off this wardrobe today so that he could start to spend less time at the village because he had in fact realised that he had been neglecting Ellie a bit, but now that she had shown up it had just slowed down his progress.
"Are you sleeping with her because you certainly haven't been interested in me lately?", Ellie blurted and Lorne looked at her, shock on his face and he replied,
"I can't believe you just said that, especially as you said, she is pregnant".
"Well you seem to have forgotten what you said to me on our wedding night, the bit about never getting tired of me. We haven't made love for two weeks now Evan….and pregnant women can still have sex….", Ellie trailed off as Lorne turned his back on her.
"I am not having this conversation with you Ellie…..I can't believe that you think I would do that".
"What am I supposed to think? Every time I've tried to get close to you lately you've pushed me away so that you can race here to help out 'Simone'", she answered hotly but Lorne kept his back to her as he said,
"Well you can think what you damn well like but I wouldn't sleep with another woman and any further discussion can wait until we get back to Atlantis".
"And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?", Ellie asked, watching as he bent to pick up the piece of wood again.
"Stay out of my way", he replied and then disappeared inside the house.
Ellie turned away from the house and tried to take a calming breath but she was mad.
Mad at herself and mad at Lorne. She hated herself for handling things the way she had but Lorne hadn't been talking to her much lately and as she had said to him, what was she supposed to think.
She knew deep down that even though he hadn't said anything he had expected her to have been pregnant again by now and she was now worrying that he was getting close to Simone because she needed a father for her baby and he desperately wanted to have a baby of his own.
Simone's husband being taken by the Wraith had opened up a window of opportunity there for Lorne if that's what he was looking for, that was.
She glanced around, looking for Sheppard and Lyssa but there was no sign of them. She spotted a wooded area and sighed deeply. She wondered whether she should go and have a look at some of the scenery. It would pass the time until Lorne was ready to leave.
She stomped off toward the trees and Ellie being Ellie became immediately engrossed and didn't realise how far into the trees she had wandered until a noise in some undergrowth nearby made her look up.
Her heart began to beat a little faster as the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up and she knew instinctively that whatever was making the twigs snap and the leaves move was not going to be friendly.
Her mouth opened but no sound came out as a Wraith stepped into view, his gleaming eyes staring at her and Ellie froze as he began to walk toward her.
In what felt like slow motion, her hand went to her ear only for her to remember that she wasn't wearing her ear-piece with this not actually being an off-world mission and that was when the panic set in.
She stood quickly and reached for her hand gun, which thankfully Sheppard had insisted they all take with them and she pointed it at the Wraith who was almost upon her.
She fired off two shots in quick succession but they didn't even phase the Wraith and he continued toward her.
Ellie took off at a run, changing direction when three other Wraiths emerged from the surrounding trees.
OOoOO
Lorne's head shot up as he heard the gun fire coming from the general direction of the wooded area that was to one side of the houses and he glanced over to where Simone was stood watching him work.
"Stay here", he told her as he raced down the stairs and out of the house.
He noticed immediately that there was no sign of Ellie and his pulse quickened as Sheppard and Lyssa came running out of a house further along without her.
"Colonel?", he said, reaching for his gun as he Sheppard and Lyssa raced toward the trees.
"I heard it", Sheppard replied, also readying his firearm.
"Where's Ellie?", Lyssa asked as they ran and Lorne glanced at her anxiously.
"I thought she was with you", he said and they all quickened their pace as another couple of shots rang out up ahead of them.
Lorne wanted to call out for Ellie but he knew better and instead they split up three ways to check out whatever was going on.
OOoOO
Ellie was trying to lead the four Wraiths away from the newly re-built village. The last thing those women needed was another Wraith attack, but in doing so she was dooming herself to an inevitable fate.
She tried to fire off some more shots but one Wraith had caught her up and he knocked the weapon from her hand.
Ellie screamed as she tried to run faster but it was no use and the Wraith reached out and grasped her hair in his slimy hand, wrenching her head backwards and forcing another strangled cry from her throat.
He spun her to face him and Ellie fought against his hold as he grinned at her and tried to place his hand against her chest.
"Nooo!", she said, trying to twist her body but he held her fast and finally managed to connect his palm against the smooth skin of her chest in the centre below her collar bones.
Ellie immediately began to feel woozy and she sagged against the Wraith as the enzyme that readied a victim for feeding coursed through her veins.
She was aware of gun fire erupting all around them and suddenly the Wraith released his grip on her and they both fell to the floor.
Lorne's heart all but stopped as Ellie collapsed onto the floor. The sight of the Wraith about to feed upon her had almost sent him over the edge and as Sheppard and Lyssa saw to the other three Wraiths he raced toward her crumpled form.
"Ellie!", he shouted as he ran over to her and knelt at her side.
He pulled her into his arms but she remained limp and lifeless at first.
"Ellie? Sweetheart?", he said, his voice urgent as he smoothed her hair back from her face.
Ellie groaned and blinked her eyes as she opened them and looked up at Lorne's worried expression.
That same expression quickly turned to anger when he realised that she was okay.
"What the hell were you doing wandering out here on your own?", he asked her as he helped her up.
"I……ah……you told me to stay out of your….ooh……way", she said, wobbling unsteadily against him as the enzyme slowly left her system.
Lorne gripped her elbow and shook his head as Lyssa and Sheppard walked over to them.
"How many times do I have to tell you to not wander off on your own but you still do it…….Ellie you could have been killed", he all but shouted at her and Ellie's eyes filled with tears as she looked at him.
"I'm………sorry……don't yell at me", she sniffed and Lorne sighed as Sheppard said,
"You okay Ellie?".
Ellie nodded and pulled her arm from Lorne's grip.
She was still a little unsteady on her feet but at that moment she preferred to lean upon Lyssa than on her angry husband.
"She needs to go to the infirmary, are you coming or do you want us to take her back?", Sheppard asked and Lorne ran a hand over his eyes.
"I'll come back with you now Sir but we could do with checking out the area, make sure there are no more Wraith about".
"I'll send a team back", Sheppard agreed and they headed toward the gate, Lorne stopping off to tell Simone that he had to go back to Atlantis.
End of Chapter One