Teyla felt the hard barrel of the 9mm pressed against her neck, heard the heavy breathing of her assailant. She smelled the heavy odor of fear and tasted blood from the cut on her forehead that dripped down her face and onto her lips.

But all was dark around her. She was blind.

"So help me, McKay. I will kill her." At the bitter words, Teyla blinked rapidly, willing herself to see again.

Teyla and Rodney had been exploring the Ancient ruins on this planet with several other SG teams. The two of them had run into one of the other scientists in a room far down a lonely corridor. Ronon and Sheppard were not far, but she doubted that anyone had any idea what was going on, it had happened so fast. The man holding her now had clutched at his head, fallen over and begun silently writhing on the floor. She'd gone to him, to see what was wrong, when he'd hit her on head and knocked her out. When she'd awoken, it was to complete darkness, a pounding headache, and she'd felt herself being dragged up.

"Look, Ashton, just let her go. No one is going to hurt you, okay?" McKay's voice pleaded and Telya turned her head slightly in his direction, trying to orient herself in relation to him.

"It's Ainsley, you idiot! Ainsley! Why can't you ever remember my name?" She felt the gun leave her throat and knew that it was now pointed directly at her team mate. "Well, I'm going to make you remember it. You'll never forget me." The maniacal laugh chilled her to the bone and she knew that she only had moments to act. Ainsley had taken the wrong person captive.

She didn't need her eyes to fight this scientist. He wasn't trained as she was.

She pushed up on Dr. Ainsley's arm just as the gun went off. She heard Rodney's cry of pain as she firmly twisted Ainsley's wrist and neatly disarmed him. Her left elbow shot up and connected solidly with his nose, but she was momentarily dizzy from the sudden movement and from what she was sure was a concussion. Her grip on his wrist wavered and he pulled away from her, shouting out in pain and anger.

Now she felt truly helpless. She listened to the sounds around her and tried to get her bearings again. Wanting desperately to lie down, to still the pounding in her head, she heard Rodney call out to her.

"Teyla, watch out! He shot me!" The hysteria in Rodney's voice was apparent, but Teyla had no time to listen more as Dr Ainsley managed to lock an arm around her throat. She immediately grabbed his wrist again, pushed back against him to try to throw him off balance, and plowed her elbow into his belly. He released her with a howl and bent over double.

Just then Ronon barreled past her. She was amazed at how easily she identified him by just his mass moving past. She had no doubt, from the sounds she was hearing, that Dr. Ainsley was being subdued, and none too gently.

"Hey, Teyla, good job holding him off till the cavalry got here." She could practically hear the smile in John's voice as he squeezed her arm momentarily and then moved away from her. Checking on Rodney, from what she could hear.

"Yes, Rodney, she shot you. It doesn't look too serious, though, and we'll get you back to Atlantis and you can be flirting with Keller in no time." John teased.

Teyla, quite suddenly, felt that she could stand no longer. Her stomach lurched, and she closed her eyes. Trying to sit down before she fell down, she heard all three of her team mates echo her name in alarm, but then she heard nothing more.

***

Teyla felt the itchy blanket beneath her fingertips, heard the soft and steady beep of the monitors. She smelled the familiar disinfectant odor that she'd come to associate with the infirmary, and her mouth tasted like it had been stuffed with cotton.

She opened her eyes.

At the foot of her bed, she looked into the wide, worried, blue eyes of Rodney McKay. She smiled broadly and drank in the sights around her. The laugh that escaped her as she looked at her three teammates, anxiously looking back at her, was not something she could have stopped.