John laid on his side staring out the webbing that made up the prison door. He just had to hold out a little longer. He knew they were coming for him. They wouldn't just leave him here. She wouldn't just leave him here.
He focused his eyes more as he felt the rumble of stomping vibrate the floor under his face. All he saw were the covered feet as they approached. He stayed still hoping they would just turn around and leave. The sounds of the doors retracting open made him shut his eyes. A second later hands grabbed him and hauled him upright.
" Open your eyes human."
John obeyed. The feeling had finally come back to he's left shoulder. He wanted it to stay that way. The wraith in front of him snarled a smile at him and moved to the side revealing Elizabeth standing behind him.
" Elizabeth." He whispered taking a step toward her only to be pulled back by the guards that had pulled him off the floor.
Tears entered Elizabeth's eyes when she saw John. " What have they done to you?" Her voice barely a whisper.
" You will tell us what we want know Sheppard." The wraith was again in front of him, blocking his view of Elizabeth.
The stubbornness that was keeping John's adrenaline coursing threw his veins slid back over his face. His lips didn't part.
" Tell us what we want to know or we will kill her."
" If you kill her then you won't have a bargaining chip. How smart would that be of you?" John retorted.
" She is not the only one."
John's eyes grew wide, as he heard Rodney's voice.
" Where is Elizabeth?"
John saw threw the webbing as 4 guards pushed Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon into John's eyesight.
" Now shall we proceed? Answer the question."
John saw Elizabeth's head shake, " Don't John."
He looked back at the wraith. Torn. But he waited to long.
" Very well." He turned sharply, and Elizabeth screamed.
John's eye snapped open the sound of Elizabeth's screams echoing in his mind. His eyes shifted to the withered husk laying mere inches from him. They had left it…her as a reminder of what awaited the others if he didn't cooperate. It had been hours since they had killed her. He didn't know how long they'd wait to bring in the next member of his team, but if they wanted the location to Earth as badly as he thought. I wouldn't be long.
He cringed when he felt the familiar rumble under his face. They were coming.
" Major over here."
It couldn't be. His eyes shifted up from the floor and he saw Rodney standing there. They escaped. Before John could ask how, Major Lorne, a handful of marines, and Ronon were rushing into the cell and helped John to his feet.
One of the marines, and Rodney balanced John between them, and started out of the cell. John opened his mouth for them to grab her body but nothing came out, and his neck all of a sudden couldn't support his head as it began to fall.
" We've got you John. We're taking you home." He heard Rodney say before he fell into darkness.
When he awoke he was laying on a gurney in a jumper with Jennifer looking over him.
" Looks like they broke a few ribs, dislocated his shoulder, and he's got a nasty head wound. He's got some cuts, some deep tissue bruising it looks like, and he's dehydrated. But he should be fine baring any internal injuries." She said to someone he couldn't see, and never got the chance to as the medics rolled him away to infirmary. He didn't even remember the gurney leaving the jumper.
John became aware again as pain shot through his left shoulder. He groaned.
" John." Came a small whisper from his right.
He turned his head toward the sound. And couldn't believe his eyes. He began to shake his head, "No, no, no, no….I saw…..no, no."
" It's ok." She stood up to stand beside his bed. " I'm here."
John shifted in the bed to move away from her. " But I saw…watched them."
Elizabeth reached out and grabbed his hand. " I'm here John."
John tried to pull his hand away. He didn't know what kind of trick this way but he wasn't falling for it. " You're dead. I watched them suck the life out of you." His voice hoarse and quite.
He pulled harder and started thrashing around the bed. " Let me go. You're not her." His voice getting stronger and louder causing Jennifer to come running from her office.
Elizabeth let go of his hand and was pushed back by the nurses attempting to hold down John as Jennifer injected him with a sedative and his world turned to darkness once again.
When he woke up again the infirmary was dark. He slowly turned his head to the side and saw her lying in the bed next to his sleeping. This couldn't possible be real. He had watched her die. Heard her screams. Laid inches from what was left of her.
" It's really her, us John." A voice came from the other side of him.
He turned his head to see Teyla sitting up from what he assumed was a slumped position in the chair.
" But I saw…" He turned back to Elizabeth
" It was a trick. Rodney said it had something to do with the replicators."
" Replicators…" His tongue began to feel heavy in his mouth. " But why…"
" Rodney will be in later to explain. Just know that this is all very real, and Elizabeth is very much alive."
John tried pull his tongue back up to say ok but couldn't. His head lauled back and he did a short nod.
" Rest John. We will wake you when Rodney comes in." Teyla said standing beside his bed, and smiled down on him.
" I said we would wake him when you were here to explain to us what happened." He heard Teyla's voice.
He had blacked out again. 'Well that part is getting annoying' he thought with a groan.
" John?" And he felt her right there beside his bed and he panicked, then Teyla popped into his head. And he faintly remembered her words.
" 'Liz'beth." He slurred out slowly opening his eyes.
" There you are." She smiled down at him.
" But..I…" He couldn't find his voice or the words to complete his sentence.
" If you can stay away enough for me to explain it this time…"
" Rodney." He heard Ronon chastise.
" What I tired hours ago and he passed right out on me."
" Didn't pass out." John said opening his eyes more and pined a look at Rodney, not that he even remembered the first try.
" I think he's lucid enough this time. Go ahead Rodney." Jennifer said.
Rodney looked at him skeptically " Are you sure cause he looks like..."
" Rodney." Elizabeth warned.
"Fine, fine. The reason you thought Elizabeth was dead, and that we were going to be next is because of the replicators."
" How?" Elizabeth asked.
" Remember when the wraith wanted me to rewrite their base code to stop them attacking. Well they went one better and wrote the code so they would work for them. It was done horribly the code was just pushed into a line of code not re-written, just made to fit. I'm surprised it worked. That's why he thinks your dead. That body I told you we saw lying in the cell with him, it did have one of our uniforms on. They must have kept one of the bodies from the team that came with us the first time. Had the replicator dig into Sheppard's mind feed him false memories to try and get what they wanted, and when they zapped him with a stunner they brought the body in to make it real. That's why you never saw them bring the replicator in. They stunned you before and after they bought the replicator in so you wouldn't ever see him or see them bring in the body."
Stunned. It was all a replicated simulation.
John turned his head and looked at Elizabeth. She was real. It was all real.
--
3 days later found John wondering the halls in the dead of night. 2 days locked in the infirmary and today it was rest in his room. He'd seen Elizabeth a few times after Rodney's explanation. But not long enough for him to gather the courage and actually speak to her. Even after hearing it, that it was all just some elaborate simulation put in his mind, everytime he saw her he saw the body that laid next to him for hours. It wasn't like he hadn't been at the wrath of the replicators and their insistent need to bury their hands in his head, it was just that last time he had died while she had gotten away.
He looked around his surrounding and surprised himself. His wondering had led him to where Elizabeth's quarters were. His feet usually lead him to the deserted parts of the city.
Without a second thought he walked the length of the hallway and made it to Elizabeth's door and ran his hand over the bottom crystal to announce he was there. After a minute the door opened to reveal Elizabeth in rumpled clothes and rubbing a hand over her eyes.
" John it's late is everything ok?"
" Yeah, I just…sorry I didn't mean to wake you." He said and started backing up.
" No, no." She reached a hand out to stop him, " It's ok. Come in."
She moved a step back into the room allowing John to side step in behind the closing doors.
Elizabeth moved and sat on the corner of her bed, John followed sitting beside her.
" I'm sorry." He finally said.
Elizabeth looked at him worry in her eyes. " For what?"
" For what happened in the infirmary." He said, his gaze pointed to the floor.
" There's nothing for you to be sorry for." She laid a hand on his arm.
" Yes, yes there is. The way I acted. They way I looked at you...I..."
" How can you even begin to believe it's your fault? The Wraith are getting creative and desperate. We never saw any of this coming."
John shook his head. " But the way I treated you the past few days."
" John I don't blame you for anything that has happened the past few days."
He kept his eyes on the floor and the next words that came out of his mouth were barely a whisper, " But you don't do that to the people you love." His eyes left the floor and met hers.
What she found in his eyes was all the answer she needed " Love?" she asked anyway.
" Crazy right. Love." John said standing up out of Elizabeth's reach, pacing, " I'm not supposed to love you. You're my boss for god's sake. But there it is. Right here." He put his hand over his heart. " And no matter how I try it won't go away."
Elizabeth didn't know what to say. All she could do was stare at him.
" I know you don't feel the same way. I'm not telling you this to make you come to some kind of epiphany. I just needed to explain my actions." John stopped and looked down at the ground. " And I don't need..."
He was interrupted by the feel of a hand on either side of his face lifting it up so his eyes meet hers. "That epiphany came when you were captured a month ago."
Surprise filled his eyes. " Elizabeth." He whispered.
"Shh.." She put her finger on his lips, smiled and replaced her finger with her lips.