Wriiten for the sg-rarepairings ficathon at LiveJournal. The request was for a John/Teyla scary or suspenseful story; a bonus would be John not getting to be the hero.
Blaise Pascal (17th Century French mathematician/philosopher): "Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them."
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What Faith Tells Us
The thick door swung shut behind them, leaving them in darkness. John sighed heavily as he tried to focus on the glimmer of light in the distance.
"Remind me why you wanted to do this again?" He didn't hear or feel any sign of disapproval but could just imagine her eyes rolling as she started to walk towards the faint beacon, her fingers brushing his in a signal to follow.
"The Valerians will not allow us access to their repository until we have shown that we appreciate and respect their values. You know as well as I that Rodney believes it to hold Ancient technology, and he will never forgive us if we do not at least try to gain permission."
"Yeah, I get that. I just want to know why it has to be me and you. Or, specifically me. We could be back at the banquet, a nice glass of Dakka - or whatever it was called - in hand, and Rodney and Ronon could be down here."
"Because I believe that neither Rodney nor Ronon possess the patience for such a task. Mikel said that it was a test of our faith, not our intelligence or strength."
"Yeah, well, I'm not too hot on faith these days either."
"I do not recall volunteering you for the task, John."
She was right about that. "I wasn't going to let you come down here by yourself, and like you said, this isn't really the kind of thing that Rodney or Ronon would appreciate me ordering them to do. So, here we are."
"Yes."
"Let's just get out of here as fast as we can. Spending the night stuck in a maze of underground tunnels isn't exactly what I -"
A loud bang from behind made them both jump and turn around. "Someone else felt like taking the rite?" He whispered.
"No," Teyla replied quietly. "The noise came from towards the right, not from directly behind. It was not the door that we came through."
"I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing."
"Neither do I."
His eyes searched the darkness for a moment for any sign of life before turned back. "Let's just keep going."
John wasn't sure how long they had been walking for, but the light didn't seem to be getting any closer.
"Did you consider the possibility that their Gods might be Wraith? And that they might be waiting for us at the end of the tunnel?"
"I did."
"And?"
"I suspect that the device that Heldon used to open to the door to the passage was Ancient. I have not seen it before, but it certainly was not of Wraith design."
"Yeah, that's what I came up with too."
He stifled a groan as she stopped suddenly in front of him, his chin knocking the back of her head as he walked into her. "Ow. What is it?"
"There is a light."
"Yeah, the one that we've been following..."
"No, another. It appears to be coming up from the ground." She shuffled to one side, pressing up against the cold stone wall to allow him to peer over her shoulder.
"Crap. It's a pit." The faint light extended across the verge evenly. "There's no way across, we'll have to go back and try and find another tunnel."
"This was the only direction that possessed any light. Even if there was another tunnel, we would be in total darkness."
"Maybe that's the point. Maybe we're supposed to trust that 'the Gods' will show us the way. We are supposed to be be following the 'path of the Gods' after all."
"I still believe that this is the right path."
"Teyla," he said with a sigh. "There is no way across." As if to emphasise his point, he scuffed the dirt beneath his foot and watched as it fell over the edge.
"John, did you see that?"
"Yeah, it looks like a pretty long way down -"
"No, not that. That." She pointed to a location in front of them that seemed to be thin air to him.
"What?"
She let out a frustrated sigh before stepping forward into the abyss.
"Teyla!" He leapt towards her, grabbing her arm as she seemed to hover in front of him, one foot firmly planted near his and the other floating above the gorge.
John bent down carefully, still keeping a firm grip on her, and saw that there was now a gap in the light being projected from the distant ground.
"Damn. There's a ledge there. It must be camouflaged."
"All you need is a little faith." The dim light from the gorge illuminated Teyla's smile as she turned to step tentatively forward, leaving the safety of the tunnel floor.
"Don't tell me Spielberg was an Ancient too," John muttered under his breath as he followed.
"I believe that the 'path of the Gods' is a concept familiar to many cultures, certainly in this galaxy. Many people like to believe that the Ancestors are still guiding us."
John stumbled as they came to a steeper section of ledge, and he reached forward blindly. His hand fell on her shoulder at the same time that she felt behind her, her palm finding his thigh.
"I'm alright."
He felt the muscles in her shoulder tense as he spoke, not realising how close his lips were to her ear until she turned slightly and her hair whispered across his cheek. He let go of her shoulder reluctantly as she started forward again. He waited until they had reached the other side before he let out the breath that he had been holding, and he could tell from her rapid, unsteady breathing that she was just as relieved. She touched his hand lightly as she turned and started towards the beacon, and he followed closely.
"So, who's been showing you their Indiana Jones collection?"
"Major Lorne."
"Lorne, huh?"
She didn't reply, and he was almost tempted to ask her what else Lorne had been showing her. At least he could draw comfort from the fact that he was still Major Lorne and not Evan. At least, not yet.
She paused, the back of her raised hand hitting his shoulder to stop him.
"What is it?" John whispered.
"The light, it is coming from a different direction."
He looked up and realised that she was right; the glimmer was now to their left rather than directly in front of them.
"I guess that they want us to go in that direction instead."
"Perhaps it is a trap. The light that we were following seemed to be fairly close. We could continue the way we were going. Or we could follow the new path."
A loud, primal cry from the direction that they had come from caught their attention. "Teyla? Make a decision."
"We should follow the new light."
"Why?"
She started forward, her hand falling to her side. "Because this is a test of faith. The Valerians specifically told us to follow our hearts and not our heads. Logically, we should continue in the same direction as we know that we are not far from the light. But if we are to follow the true path of the Gods, then we should defy logic and move in any direction that they tell us to, even if it appears to take us further away from our goal."
"Right. Exactly what I was thinking."
"Of course." He didn't need to see her face to know that she was smiling, and the tone sounded a little too familiar for his liking.
"You've been spending way too much time with Rodney," he muttered as he followed her into a large cave. She crossed to the other side quickly, trailing her fingers across the wall where the light that they had been following lay embedded in the stone. He moved to join her, but whirled around when the walls rumbled and a slab of stone lowered from the ceiling with a loud crash, blocking the entrance.
"Crap." He moved his hands across the stone, searching for any discrepancy which might suggest a mechanism to raise the shield. "We'd better find another way out."
The thumping sound that had been following them became louder and more insistent as they searched frantically for an exit. As Teyla ran across the middle of the room to the other side, her foot brushed an object on the floor, and she stopped and bent down.
"What is it?"
"It appears to be some sort of lever."
He approached, trying to see the object where it came up from the ground and nestled in her hand. "Pull it."
"John..."
"Teyla, whatever that thing coming after us is, it's gonna be here pretty damn soon. Pull the lever, it might be a way out."
His mind barely registered her shriek as the ground gave way beneath them, sending Teyla sliding through the large gap that had appeared and him after her.
The 'slide' reminded him of ones at water parks, though unfortunately not quite as smooth. He panicked as the cylindrical surface suddenly changed angle and became vertical, sending Teyla tumbling out of his sight. He heard her cry this time, as she hit the ground hard, seconds before he landed on top of her with a groan.
Scanning their surroundings quickly, he realised that the décor of the room resembled the style of their hosts and concluded that they had reached the end of their journey.
"You okay?"
She shifted beneath him as the water that had accompanied their entrance slowly drained away, and he held his breath as her body arched slightly into his. "I believe so."
He watched her as she closed her eyes and moved her head to one side, then to the other. Satisfied that she hadn't injured herself, Teyla met his gaze with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, right. Sorry." John lifted himself gingerly onto his knees, allowing her to to sit up before him.
As the door at the far side of the room slid open, John rose to his feet slowly and extended his hand. Teyla took it and let him help her up from the floor.
"Thanks," he whispered as he squeezed her hand.
She smiled back, her thumb caressing his before she gently pulled away. "You are welcome."