Disclaimer: I do not own Atlantis or any of its characters

Dangerous Accusation

Chapter 1

"The Captain told us to wait for back up."

"Well then we'll just wait inside," Detective John Sheppard told his partner as they approached the back of the house. He reached the patio door and was happy to find it unlocked as he pushed it to the side. He entered the house with his partner; Detective Teyla Emmagan was right behind him as they left what was obviously the dining room and entered the narrow cluttered hallway.

Keeping their guns aimed ahead of them they searched the entire downstairs before silently making their way upstairs. They were both so attuned to one another that they didn't need to use words to know what the other was going to do.

They checked the first room they came to but found nothing and made their way to the second. As they neared the door several bullets blasted through it narrowly missing both their heads. John heard the tell tale signs of someone struggling to reload a gun and took the opportunity to kick the bedroom door in and aim his gun at the man in front of him.

"Drop your weapon and kick it away," John ordered as Teyla moved to stand by his side, her gun also prepared to shoot the man if he tried anything. The man froze for a moment, fear flickering across his features as he realised he'd been caught. He finally dropped his weapon and kicked it away from him self as he'd been told.

"Now where's the girl?" John asked but received no reply so he moved closer bringing the gun nearer to the man's head. "Where's the girl?" he shouted making the man flinch and unconsciously look over to the closet on his right.

John and Teyla both read the action for what it was and Teyla immediately opened the closet door to find the three year old girl they had been looking for. Teyla holstered her weapon and held her hand out to the little girl who seemed to afraid to move. Her skin and clothes were covered in dust and dirt and her hair was so filthy you could barely tell it was blonde.

"Its okay," Teyla said quietly to the little girl. "I'm Teyla, I'm a cop, you're safe now."

The little girl continued to stare at her hand warily for a moment before reaching out her own small hand to grasp Teyla's fingers. Teyla lifted the girl in to her arms as she heard John arrest the kidnapper behind her and read him his rights. When she turned around John had the man cuffed and was looking at her as if to ask if they were okay.

Teyla nodded and watched as John led his prisoner out of the room as the sounds of sirens could be heard approaching. She followed them a moment later with the little girl and waited outside with her as the ambulance approached.

She handed the little girl over to the paramedics after they had coaxed her into letting go of Teyla and she rejoined her partner. John was handing the kidnapper off to two cops and making a few mocking comments, he then turned to Teyla.

"The kid alright?" he asked.

"She's a little shook up but I think once they get her to the hospital and she's reunited with her parents she'll be fine."

"We did good today," he said putting an arm over his partner's shoulder as they walked toward their car.

"Yeah we did," she agreed.

- - -

"Well if it isn't today's heroes," Detective Jason Lars said sarcastically as John and Teyla walked into the LAPD.

"Give it a rest Lars," John told him.

"Sheppard, Emmagan, get in here now," Captain Sumner called from his office in a voice that told them they were in trouble.

"Here we go," Teyla said following John into the Captain's office.

"What the hell were you two thinking today?" Sumner shouted as soon as the door was closed. "I specifically told you to wait for back up so what do you do, go charging in there as soon as the words have come out of my mouth!"

"With all due respect sir, we didn't go charging in, we were careful and quiet. We knew he was in there with the girl and back up was more than ten minutes away, I made a judgement call."

"You should have followed orders; your actions today put not only your own lives in danger but the girls as well," Sumner said now focusing on Teyla.

"This wasn't Teyla's decision it was mine," John stated hoping to bring the Captain's attention back to him.

"Then your decision put your life, your partner's life and the girl's life in danger," he shouted at John before turning back to Teyla. "And your blind willingness to follow him into any situation put those same lives in danger. I should have both your badges for this."

Sumner took a deep breath to calm himself but he was clearly still fuming as he walked around his desk and sat in his chair. "However the press are already hailing you as heroes and it would be pretty bad publicity if you were punished for this. Both of you get out of my office now!"

John and Teyla hurried out of the office before he could change his mind, well aware of how close they'd come to losing their jobs… again.

"I didn't mean to get you in trouble again," John said apologetically.

"It's okay we did the right thing, who knows what could have happened to that girl if we hadn't gone in when we did."

"Still, it was my decision to go against orders and I'm sorry."

Teyla smiled and nodded her head. "It's fine."

"Good," John said returning her smile. "I'll catch you later," he said before leaving.

"John get you in trouble again?" A familiar and unwelcome voice said from behind her and Teyla turned to see Lars standing there. He was a good looking man, his dark hair and blue eyes making an attractive combination. Unfortunately he knew it and it only added to his arrogance.

"What do you want?"

"You know, one of these days he's going to end up costing you everything, your job maybe even your life."

"I trust John with both," Teyla said simply.

"We both know that's not true," Lars said stepping closer to her. "Why don't you just ask to be transferred to another partner? You and I would be great together."

Teyla caught the double meaning in his words and almost wanted to laugh at him. "John Sheppard is good man and despite what you seem to think I trust him with my career and more importantly with my life. I'd follow him to hell and back if he asked me too simply because he asked me to. You and I will never be good together either professionally or personally because you're an arrogant jerk and I don't trust you."

Teyla finished her little speech and turned and walked away hoping he had got the message. He shouted something after her but she didn't hear what he said and she didn't really care either.

- - -

John arrived home at his apartment and was walking up the stairs when he heard a woman scream in one of the apartments. He quickly grabbed his gun from the holster and made his way to the door of the apartment. He listened closely but couldn't hear anything so he tried the door handle only to find it locked.

"LAPD open up!" he shouted but got no response so he took a step back and kicked the door in. He couldn't see any intruders in the room but his eyes immediately fell on the body of its occupant. He quickly scanned the room with his eyes before dropping to one knee next to the woman.

She had been stabbed in the chest and there was blood everywhere. John felt her neck for a pulse but as he'd expected he couldn't find one. A man walked into the room and John recognised him immediately as one of the apartment's occupants.

"It's okay I'm a cop," John stated when he saw the look of fear on the man's face.

"I know who you are; you live in the apartment above me."

"Call the police," John told him as the man continued to regard him warily and John gestured to the phone in annoyance when the man still didn't move. He finally did as he'd been told and John turned back to the body in front of him. Why did he feel like this day was about to get worse?

- - -

Teyla arrived at John's apartment and saw him talking to a couple of police officers. He saw her arrive and gave her a small smile of acknowledgement before turning back to the police woman in front of him. Teyla decided to leave him to it for now and went inside the building heading for victim's apartment.

She showed her badge to the officer at the door and he allowed her into the room. The woman's body was still on the floor as the crime scene officer's examined the scene. She spotted Rodney McKay near the body putting a knife into an evidence bag and she had to look closer at the knife. She walked up to Rodney and held her hand out for the bag.

"Let me see that," she ordered and Rodney sighed and handed her the bag.

"That needs to go into evidence you know," he said sounding somewhat annoyed.

"I'm giving you it back," she stated as she looked at the knife. She recognised the design on the handle and remembered that John had the same set. She handed the knife back to Rodney and wordlessly walked to the kitchen to find that the victim didn't have those knives.

She had a bad feeling and she followed it out of the victim's apartment and up to John's. They both had keys to each others apartments in case for whatever reason they ever needed to get in. She let herself in with her spare key and walked straight into his kitchen. When she opened the drawer she closed her eyes as she realised one of the knives was missing, the same one that had been used in the murder. Quickly closing the drawer she checked the rest of the kitchen and still couldn't find the knife.

She hurriedly walked out of the apartment, down the stairs and out of the building. She was relieved to find John finishing up with the two officers and she all but ran over to him.

John noticed the urgent, slightly panicked expression on her face immediately "What's wrong?"

"The knife used in the murder," Teyla began. "Is from your apartment"

"What?" John exclaimed before he lowered his voice. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, I saw the knife and the victim didn't have the same ones but I remembered that you did so I went up and checked. The same knife that was used to kill that woman is missing from your set."

"I didn't kill her Teyla," John said.

"I know," Teyla stated honestly, she had not been lying earlier when she had told Lars she trusted John.

"Which knife was it, one from the drawer or the one I left on the counter when I used it this morning?"

"There was only one knife missing from the drawer and none on the counter so I'm guessing the one from the counter," Teyla told him and John shook his head in disbelief.

"They already consider me a suspect just because I was found with her. They would have ruled me out pretty quick but with the knife evidence, my finger prints will be all over that."

Teyla briefly entertained the thought of taking the knife but beside the fact that it was illegal and John would never allow it, McKay already had it and she could never remove evidence anyway.

A commotion behind her caused Teyla to turn around and she saw the body bag being removed from the apartment on a stretcher. She was aware of John moving next to her but forced herself not to turn and look at him; she knew what he was doing and instead she walked away. When she finally turned back moments later he was gone.

Two people she didn't recognise approached her and she knew immediately they were the FBI. She had been informed that they believed this murder was part of a serial killing and that the FBI was on their way to investigate.

One of them was a woman about Teyla's age with dark brown hair and green eyes. The other was a tall man with light brown dread locks and didn't look anything like an FBI agent.

"Hello," the woman greeted as she approached Teyla. "I'm agent Elizabeth Weir, this is Agent Ronon Dex. We're with the FBI. We're looking for John Sheppard."

TBC