Authors Note –The second part of Magical Lantis is finally here, sorry it took so long; I know a few people have been waiting for this. I hope it was worth the wait and thanks to everyone who stuck with me.

Personal Battles

Chapter 1

John Sheppard left his bags in his room deciding it would be best to unpack later, he'd spent the last couple of days travelling and some rest was definitely in order. His room at Pegasus was exactly as he'd left it, not that he'd expected someone to come in and start moving the furniture around while he'd been gone. The large bed still dominated the room, the closet was built into the wall so obviously that had gone nowhere. The desk in the corner had obviously been cleaned while he was gone and kept clean and a quick glance in the bathroom said that someone had been in there cleaning that too, it looked like it had the day he'd first arrived.

He headed for the cafeteria, it was the middle if the day so that was where he'd most likely find Elizabeth and Teyla, along with anyone else who had returned after the Christmas break. He spotted them quickly enough, sitting at their usual table not far from where the food was being served. Teyla was chatting with Kate and Marcus whilst Elizabeth seemed to be having a completely separate conversation with Laura. Her hand was resting over a familiar book sitting on the table in front of her, the present he'd given to her for Christmas.

"Hey guys," he greeted as he got to the table and received several smiles and a hug from Teyla in response. He sat down next to Elizabeth who smiled as Laura abandoned their conversation in favour of helping Teyla and Kate gang up on Marcus; apparently they wanted to go shopping.

"Thank you for my present," Elizabeth said quietly "How did you get it?"

"Now that would be telling," John replied in amusement, glancing at the special edition copy of the book still resting beneath Elizabeth's hand. There were only ten copies of the special edition version in existence, he remembered one of the teachers from his high school mentioning it, the true story of a man whose name escaped John, he'd battled corrupt politicians and an outraged public in order to change the laws regarding the treatment of certain magical beings, animals with magic properties that had previously been exploited for money. He'd remembered it during one of their Ethics lessons and had immediately thought of Elizabeth, it had taken him a few weeks and a large sum of money but he'd found one of the Special Edition copies and managed to get it in time for Christmas.

"It's probably my favourite gift so thank you," she told him with a smile and he nodded.

"And thank you for my present," he replied, holding up his wrist to show her the watch she had got him. He was not a person who liked to wear watches, at least not the ones he owned, they weren't something he thought to buy himself and the ones that were bought for him always annoyed him. They were always too tight or too loose, too chunky, too thin, to flashy or too something else. The one Elizabeth had bought him was perfect though, silver links attached together intricately and rather than the overly diamond encrusted faces he usually got, the face was simple, a silver rim with a white back grounds and plain black hands whose only function was to tell him the time, not sparkle or blind people when they reflected the light. There was one diamond in the whole thing, in the centre of the face where the hands joined together and from the look of it, it had been an expensive one.

"Now you can stop being late all the time," Elizabeth stated, smile still in place and John happily returned it as he lowered his hand.

"Did you manage to keep Teyla's hands off the presents until Christmas day?" John questioned and Elizabeth laughed.

"Only just, she's pretty sneaky when she's that determined to get something," she told him "The amount of times I caught her crawling across the floor to try and get to them unnoticed was ridiculous."

John laughed; the mental image of Teyla crawling across the floor only to be caught by Elizabeth entering his mind without permission and would probably remain stuck there for a while. Jack would probably find it hilarious, speaking of which...

"Is Jack back yet?" John questioned, knowing his friend had supposedly been planning to head back to school early, something about his mother driving him crazy with all her 'I missed you' fussing.

"He was going to come back early but changed his mind, he'll be back this afternoon," Elizabeth informed him "Teal'c and Ronon are already here, so is Vala, Sam and Daniel; everyone else should be here by tonight."

"So were you and Teyla okay over Christmas?" he asked, leaving the two girls here over the holidays had not sat well with him.

"We were fine, we had a good time actually though Teyla dragged me shopping a few times too often," Elizabeth replied, saying the last part a little louder obviously directing it at Teyla who turned around and smiled innocently before going back to her conversation. Elizabeth shook her head and John decided she seemed much more relaxed than she usually was, more comfortable and it was something he definitely liked seeing. "Come on, we should get lunch before the rest of the student population decide to do the same."

There was an envelope attached to her bedroom door and Teyla recognised the handwriting easily as her father's. She pulled at the note gently, the sticky substance that allowed it to stay attached to the door giving way without any real protest before she walked into her room. Dropping the envelope on her desk she took off her coat and threw it onto her bed, sighing and rolling her eyes when she threw it just a little too hard and it slid off the opposite side.

Ignoring it for now she picked up the envelope again, pulling out the piece of paper and opening it up to reveal more of her father's handwriting. He'd written to her almost everyday over Christmas, every letter containing an apology for not being able to come and see her after the whole thing with Mathos and having to miss out on Christmas. She'd told him in every reply that his first apology had been accepted and the thousand or so since then were completely unnecessary but the next letter would come with another apology.

This letter was no different, starting out with an apology before he told her how boring his business trip was turning out to be. She knew he was exaggerating slightly, she doubted very much that anybody had fallen asleep whilst discussing important changes to the law. He told her he was looking forward to seeing her later in the school year and she realised not for the first time how much she missed him.

She wished she could have seen him after what happened with Mathos, he'd been busy and she understood that but she would have preferred to have him there. Her friends had all been great, especially Jack, Elizabeth, John and Ronon, they'd given her enough strength to get through it. Everything was pretty much back to normal now, there was an occasional whisper or glare from some of the Mathos admirers who still weren't happy about their charming professor being taken away. Teyla glanced at the bin where the unexpected present she'd gotten was still sticking out from amongst the rest of the rubbish, a book titled '101 ways to get your teacher fired' that she and Elizabeth had found wrapped up and propped against their door on Christmas morning. The book obviously intended to be a joke in any other circumstance, for a teenager with a few authority issues, had in this case been a not so subtle reminder of what had happened.

She put the letter down on the table, dropping a book on top of it so it would get blown off and go missing. Elizabeth walked into the room as she was picking her coat up from the floor; she smiled when she saw Teyla.

"We're all going into town for dinner once the last few people are back which should be any minute, Laura says it's not optional," Elizabeth informed her and Teyla nodded, putting her coat down on her bed more carefully this time before walking over to her wardrobe to decide what to wear, she'd accumulated a lot more clothes over Christmas.

As usual Elizabeth took very little time in deciding what she wanted to wear and her room mate disappeared into the bathroom. It was cold out so Teyla grabbed her favourite pair of jeans and three inch black heals, they ought to help keep her warm and look good. She routed through her tops, settling for the long sleeve, plain black one just as the bathroom door opened.

In the time it had taken Teyla to decide what to wear, Elizabeth had chosen her clothes, changed into them and was now sat at the dresser doing her hair. Teyla grabbed her clothes and headed to the bathroom, Elizabeth was halfway through tying her hair back, something she'd grown accustomed to doing over Christmas.

"Leave your hair down, it looks nicer," Teyla said absently as she walked into the bathroom, flicking on the lights to the windowless room as she closed the door behind her.

"You might wanna hurry, Laura wants us down in the cafeteria in twenty minutes," Elizabeth called through the door. Janet and Cameron were the only students still to arrive, both of them coming from Earleth which was a three day trip and neither of them were going to get a chance to settle before they had to walk into town, Teyla couldn't help but feel bad for them. It would be nice for the group to go out for dinner though; now that everyone was together again it was good chance to catch up.

Jack could honestly say he was glad to be back at school, as much as he loved his parents his mother's fussing was slowly driving him crazy. One of the good things about coming to Pegasus was the freedom he got from his parents and all the things that were expected of him as the son of the Governors. He could just be himself here, hang out with his friends and do his homework assignments in his own time, not when his parents thought it was best.

He had really missed his friends, Elizabeth, Teyla and John in particular; Elizabeth and Teyla seemed to have enjoyed their Christmas even if they had been stuck in school for the duration. He'd been planning to come back a few days earlier but his mother had insisted he stay for the rest of the holidays since she wouldn't get to see him until later in the school year.

The large group walked into the restaurant and were seen to a table, a large circular one in the corner, one that was out of the way of the rest of the restaurant and would seat everyone. Everyone took their seats, grabbing menus and discussing their Christmas holidays. The young waitress that had been unfortunate enough to end up serving their table came over and started writing down their orders, she'd used several pieces of paper by the time she walked away and Jack figured they were going to cause anarchy in the kitchen with the amount of food they'd ordered.

Jack looked around the restaurant; there were a few other groups of students who had all had the same idea as them. It was fairly quiet though so hopefully they wouldn't cause too much fuss by their last minute turn up, with a group this big they usually booked ahead, gave the restaurants some notice.

He turned back to the table in time to hear Janet already relating the story of their Christmas Eve, a rather fun night out which had ended in humiliation for Jack. He'd wondered how long it was going to take his friend to start telling that story; it seemed it hadn't taken very long at all.

"He was so drunk I don't think he had a clue what he was doing," Janet stated laughing. "He climbed up on the stage and started singing... I don't even know what he was singing, it was just a bunch of slurred and probably made up words. Cameron and I finally managed to convince him to come down and he walked straight off the stage as though he thought the floor would continue at that height. He fell face first into the chocolate fountain... you can imagine what he looked like after that."

Janet was now laughing too hard to continue talking and Cameron was in hysterics too, the rest of the group were laughing and Jack decided to glare at Janet. She could never help herself, any embarrassing stories she had about him tended to just flow out of her mouth until she was giggling too much to continue.

"The best part is," Cameron began and Jack groaned "We have pictures."

"Where are they?" Teyla exclaimed in excitement and Jack turned to look at the petite brunette sitting next to him.

"Have I not been embarrassed enough?" he questioned and Teyla shook her head with a smile.

"Not until I've seen those pictures, possibly made copies of them and pinned them up all over the school," she replied and Jack narrowed his eyes at her.

"You wouldn't," he said and Teyla gave him a mischievous look, he knew, despite what that expression might say, that she wouldn't do that but the thought was not a pleasant one.

"Teyla, leave him alone," Elizabeth said grinning,

"No," Teyla replied and turned to grab the pictures from Cameron; she burst into hysterics and handed the pictures to Ronon. Jack groaned as they were passed around the table, everyone laughing so hard their stomach's started to ache. Elizabeth, however, laughed for a few moments before putting the picture down and reaching for her bag. Teyla froze when she what her friend was doing, her face going pale and her eyes wide.

Elizabeth pulled some photos out of her bag and smiled at Teyla "These are from Christmas day, Teyla dragged me out that night and the club we went to had some guy taking photos. I came back the next day and asked for copies of the ones Teyla was in," Elizabeth explained, sounding rather pleased with herself as she handed them to Jack. John had obviously got a glimpse of them because he started laughing and Teyla sunk into her chair.

Teyla was standing on the bar, bottles of alcohol in either hand as she was dancing; Jack laughed and moved onto the next photo. Teyla again except this time she had done something very similar to him, she'd fallen off the bar and the photographer had caught her in mid air, obviously screaming as she fell.

"I cannot believe you brought those," Teyla said to Elizabeth as she made a grab for the photos. Jack moved them out of her reach and threw them across the table. They scattered and the rest of the group picked them up, getting a good laugh from them.

"What goes around comes around," Jack told Teyla who sat back in her chair sulking.

"So other than Teyla's performance, did the two of you have a good Christmas?" Carson asked and Elizabeth nodded since Teyla was still sulking.

"It was good, the school had Christmas dinner for everyone who was still here and we had plenty of presents to open, thank you everyone by the way," Elizabeth stated and Teyla finally sat up straight in her chair again.

"And we hardly got glared at," she added, reminding everyone of the events that had occurred shortly before Christmas.

"We've met the new Defence teacher, the one replacing Mathos, he seems real nice," Elizabeth said.

"Good cos we have defence tomorrow," Janet said with a sigh "It'll be nice to be able to go through a whole defence lesson without the teacher checking me out."

TBC