AUTHOR'S NOTE: Watching "The Kindred Part1", I was always left wondering how Sheppard, McKay and Ronon would react when they found out that Teyla had disappeared while she'd been off-world with Lorne and his team. TPTB never delivered the scene, so I thought up my own. As usual, the guys pretty much took over once I'd written the first sentence.
Disappearing Act
Look again, there's a beautiful girl
Covered cinnamon, a holy land smile
It's the great disappearing act
Done for tomorrow crowd
As we're chasing our tails,
Biting our nails,
So strong and frail
Chris Cornell, Disappearing Act
"What do you mean, you lost her? How did you do that?" Rodney McKay glared at Lorne from the doorway of the conference room. One of his hands was clutching the doorframe so hard his knuckles showed, Lorne observed absent-mindedly.
"How can anyone lose a nine-months-pregnant woman?" McKay let go of the door and took a few uneven steps inside the room before, after another glare thrown in Lorne's direction, he resumed pacing. He'd been pacing nervously in a small circle ever since they had convened.
"Rodney!" Sheppard admonished his team mate with a warning note in his voice. Not surprisingly, it went unheeded.
"What?" Rodney stopped in his tracks and jerked his head around to glare at the colonel. "I mean it's not as if she were that easy to overlook. Last I checked, she was … huge. She's …. she's … she's like an elephant, for God's sake!" McKay's flapping arms indicated something the size of a house. "How do you misplace someone like that?" He rambled on irately.
Lorne closed his eyes. Each word hammered another spike into his chest, adding to the guilt he already felt so strongly it was almost another presence at his side.
He stood next to the table, barely able to look anyone in the eyes. He deserved it all, McKay's derisive bitching; Ronon who loomed menacingly over him, hands clenching and unclenching helplessly at his sides, desperate for an outlet, a target to rip apart; Sheppard who simply looked at him now, the initial shock in his eyes replaced by sympathy. Well, he probably didn't deserve the sympathy.
He had lost Teyla. On what should have been a Sunday afternoon stroll through the flea-market, he'd lost their team mate, last seen being swept up in the transporter beam of a wraith dart.
"It was a trap?" Sheppard asked almost kindly. Lorne winced. He didn't deserve the kindness either. He raised his head and looked directly at the colonel. Sheppard sat at the broad side of the table, next to Colonel Carter. Together, they presented an oasis of calm and order in a situation that defied both. The two colonels were facing Lorne, McKay and Ronon who had all three refused to sit down – for different reasons.
Lorne nodded, pursing his lips angrily. "Yeah, a really elaborate one - specially designed for Teyla. It would have been easy to take any member of my team, but they didn't. The only ones who got swept up were that trader and Teyla." Lorne paused a moment, grinding his teeth. He remembered the scene with clarity. "Those Athosian trinkets were placed in Croya to lure her there so they could capture her – and only her."
"Don't be ridiculous," McKay snapped. "We were there with her and nothing happened."
"No, nothing happened then," Sheppard corrected the scientist, looking at his XO.
'Because they were waiting for idiot Lorne to come along and hand her to them on a plate!' Lorne thought grimly, mentally beating himself up. He'd gotten so used to Teyla being able to handle everything, to take care of herself, to never rely on anyone to protect her, even when pregnant, that he'd become careless. Teyla was formidable, Teyla didn't need a man to look out for her, Teyla was -- gone.
"Yes, my words, exactly. We took care of her," Rodney announced triumphantly from the doorway, echoing Lorne's silent self-blame.
"Rodney!" Another warning glance accompanied the name that was spoken much sharper than before, Lorne noted. There was a limit to what even McKay could get away with.
Rodney glowered back defiantly. Lorne couldn't be angry with him, because he basically agreed with everything McKay was saying – except for the description of the pregnant Teyla. McKay had clearly never seen a woman in the last stages of her pregnancy before.
Sheppard cleared his throat, drawing Lorne's attention away from the angry scientist and back to the purpose of their meeting, a briefing about what they knew or thought they knew – and what steps to take. Lorneknew that they needed to focus to analyse the situation and find answers. So he took a deep breath, swallowed and listened. He had given them his report.
"Whoever did this made sure Teyla would come to M2S-181. With her people gone, they knew she'd be desperate to follow any clue to their whereabouts," Sheppard said, stating the obvious.
"Her dreams … I think we can safely say they were true," Colonel Carter added. She looked thoughtful.
Lorne saw that she was remembering the events that had led up to that fateful visit to M2S-181. After she had radioed him to assemble his team, she'd come down to the locker room and had taken him to the side. She'd told him about Teyla's visions, the last of which had triggered the Athosian's request to make another trip to the planet. While she hadn't believed in them herself, Carter had still recognized the need in the other woman. But the colonel had also understood that in this matter, Teyla was too emotionally involved to go alone. That was why she had sent Lorne and his team with her. --- It just hadn't been enough.
At the mention of Teyla's dreams, McKay snorted. He obviously wasn't having any of it. "Oh please. … Are you saying someone sent her those … those dreams to make her come to … to … Croya?" In his agitation, he stumbled over the name of that little backwater village. "That's nonsense!" McKay continued to pace angrily between door and desk, still not acknowledging Lorne except for a baleful glare or two in his direction. Lorne tried not to react to the evident scorn.
"Not nonsense," Ronon's deep voice rumbled. "Part of the plan." He had stopped looming next to Lorne and had taken a few steps back. Strangely, it made Lorne feel even worse. When he turned to look at the Satedan, he saw that a thoughtful expression had replaced the naked anger of earlier on his face.
"Someone sent her those visions, knowing she wouldn't be able to resist the bait." Ronon leant back against the doorframe, frowning at nothing, apparently trying to grasp another piece of the puzzle.
Sheppard nodded grimly. "And when they saw her with us at the market, looking for that artist guy she knew, they could be certain she'd taken the bait."
At the moment, it was only a theory, but to Lorne it sounded right. All the puzzle pieces fit so far.
"You've got to be right, John," Sam Carter agreed with Sheppard's assessment. Absently, she tapped a pencil against the table top. "After that, all they needed to do was reinforce the lure and have the dart waiting and ready to take her," she concluded softly. She shifted in her chair and fixed Lorne with a calm glance. "Why don't you sit down, Major?" She asked, gesturing to one of the empty chairs.
Reluctantly, Lorne walked around the table and complied. He was still too much on edge to be comfortable sitting down, but he recognized the question as a sugar-coated order. Heavily, he dropped into the chair and folded his hands on the table. Lips pressed tightly together, he let his eyes wander over the table surface, until they found a dirt spot on the otherwise shining top and stayed there, unseeing.
"So, what else do we know?" Sheppard asked. "That, while we were out on Hoff, chasing after the bastard who's developed the Hoffan drug into a weapon, they closed the trap, right?" He answered his own question.
Thinking the scenario through, Lorne found a flaw. "But they couldn't know you'd be out there, without Teyla." He raised his head.
"That's what I'm saying, Lorne," Sheppard agreed readily. "They couldn't." He caught Lorne's eyes, nodding, but Lorne wasn't sure he could believe what the man was trying to tell him.
"It wasn't your fault," Ronon confirmed quietly. Surprised, Lorne moved his head, studying the Satedan. Ronon returned the glance without anger. "They'd have taken her no matter who was with her." The big man pushed his body off the doorframe, stepped up to the table and dropped into the chair next to Lorne, dipping his head at him briefly.
Lorne took a deep breath.
That left only McKay still on his feet, scowling into the room from the doorway. "But…!"
"Shut up, Rodney!" Sheppard cut in, again not unkindly, effectively interrupting the next tirade before it could begin. He ignored McKay's baleful glare and instead focused on Lorne who shifted uncomfortably in his chair under the scrutiny. "She could have been with half the marines of Atlantis and they'd have found a way to take her," Sheppard said, not letting go of Lorne's gaze.
"They are right, Rodney," Carter said, a placating note in her voice. "There was nothing Major Lorne could have done."
Lorne himself wasn't so sure – or so forgiving. In fact, he was a long way from forgiving himself. The scene kept playing in his head. Teyla knocking the trader out, making him talk, the walk back to the gate, the familiar whining that he had noticed too late, the way the trader had grabbed Teyla, holding her in place for the beam to scoop her up.
He scowled down at the table.
He should have noticed that the trader had been entirely too quick with his answers, too ready to lead them to the supposed dumping ground. He should have smelled the trap. The guy had given in too easily. Lorne had gotten cocky at their presumed success, and Teyla was paying the price. He sighed.
"So, who … ?" Rodney finally drew out one of the remaining chairs and sat down. Lorne knew he'd only been venting his fear for Teyla on him, but still, it hurt. It hurt even more to see the usually self-assured, even arrogant McKay tired and confused, and to know he was partly responsible for it.
"Who would want to kidnap Teyla? And why?" Rodney looked from one to the other, finally settling his gaze on Sheppard. He still avoided a direct contact with Lorne.
"Do we really need a map?" Sheppard asked. Lorne had seen the glimmer of an idea appear in the other man's eyes the moment Sheppard had heard about the wraith dart. Considering the events on Croya and elsewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy, Lorne thought they might harbour the same suspicion. There were just a few too many coincidences here.
"Michael!" Ronon replied tersely. His hands crushed the armrests of his chair.
Lorne found himself nodding in agreement.
"But…but…why?" McKay shook his head, still bewildered.
For once, it wasn't difficult for Lorne to follow McKay's thoughts. It was true; the whole thing didn't make much sense. The information they had found suggested that Michael was out there poisoning whole worlds with the intent of cutting off the wraiths' feeding supplies. Something he didn't need a hostage for. But on the other hand, the hybrid was the only logical choice for having taken Teyla. And then the realization hit him.
Lorne said it out loud the same moment that Sheppard did.
"Her baby!"
"He doesn't want her, he wants her son!"
The two men looked at each other. They knew they were right.
"On the hive, Teyla said her son was helping her stand up to that wraith queen," Lorne recalled. He sat up straight. "He has to be pretty special, with special gifts."
Suddenly, Colonel Carter leaned back in her chair. Lorne saw her eyes narrow with concentration. "A while back I had a conversation with Teyla," she said slowly. "She told me that both she and the child's father shared the gift she called wraith-sensing." She turned her head to McKay. "What would that mean to Michael?"
"That's it!" McKay shouted. He slapped the table with both hands.
Lorne almost jumped in his seat.
"That's got to be it! Don't you see? I bet that Michael thinks he can use her son for one of his nefarious experiments." McKay looked around, practically gloating.
"We all see it, McKay!" Ronon grumbled, as the others nodded.
Sheppard stood up. "There's one way to find out." He glanced down at Carter.
Lorne kept his eyes on the colonel, so he saw the look that passed between them. A silent request in one pair of eyes, agreement in the other, sealed with a barely perceptible nod.
Sheppard clapped his hands. "Okay, let's go see if Todd can confirm our theory."
Ronon and McKay were already on their feet and so was Lorne, but before he could even take a step away from the table, Sheppard shook his head at him. "I want you to stay here, Major," he said.
The order stopped him cold in his tracks. Quickly composing his features, so no one would see how the denial to try and retrieve Teyla was hitting him, Lorne stayed where he was. When he met Sheppard's gaze, calmly, he hoped, he was surprised to recognize the compassion on the other man's face. Sheppard clearly knew what his rejection of Lorne's offer meant to him.
"Todd might spook if we show up with too many people," Sheppard offered quietly by way of an explanation.
It wasn't quite true. Lorne knew that Sheppard knew that Todd probably couldn't care less who and how many of them showed up to demand answers, and that he was also aware of the fact that Lorne knew this wasn't the reason for his refusal.
Lorne straightened and kept his eyes on Sheppard. What he saw made him let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Sheppard didn't flinch away from the question in Lorne's eyes. He had made a sound, tactical decision, and it was in no way a reflection on what had happened earlier. Sheppard wasn't assigning blame by excluding his XO from this mission. His nod said that he still trusted Lorne. But one of them had to stay in the city.
"Besides, we'll need you and your team once we know where she is. I want you to be ready to move out the moment we have a location." With a last nod at Lorne, Sheppard strode to the door, following his team mates out. Almost out of the room, he suddenly stopped and turned to face Lorne again. "Don't worry. We'll find her." It was as much promise as reassurance. Though, in all honesty, Lorne wasn't sure who he was reassuring.
Sheppard's words would haunt Lorne until, finally, they did find Teyla and brought her back home.