Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks for all the reviews. Anjirika, Fitzroy, ancientesha, Kit-SGA, queerofatlantis & janib. Pleased you're all still interested in this story.

Please review Chapter Two. Enjoy :).

Chapter Two

When John arrived, Dr. Zelenka was scooping up some kind off bluish-slimy-liquid situated around the edge off Elizabeth's now broken and burnt tabletop, he then placed the contents inside a cylinder. Being careful not to get the liquid on his gloved hands.

He took a moment to take in his surroundings, it was the first time he had seen the place properly since the explosion.

The glass situated around the office had completely shattered leaving shards of it all over the floor, both inside and out; the walls had scorch marks all over. Artefacts that were once on Elizabeth desk were now strewn all over the place, some off which were either buried under the rubble or broken.

Zelenka turned to face him and pointed to the liquid dripping onto the floor near the broken artefact that had been brought back that day, from an old creepy abandoned village. "I think this maybe the answer to our current problem."

It was one of two caskets his team had found. Elizabeth had been translating the Ancient symbols encased around the edge of this one, whilst the other was sitting in McKay's science lab. It was now in two halves on the floor.

Bending down for a closer inspection, more remains off the liquid could be seen inside, traces of it leading to the balcony outside. "What do you think happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure. The way the metal casket has ended up, I would say it was the centre of the explosion and the only thing we found inside was this stuff." Zelenka let the liquid pour into the cylinder from the piece of equipment he was holding up, it left behind a burn mark.

Standing back up, John decided to follow the blue trail leading out on to the balcony. It continued on down the outside of the tower; scorch marks had followed its path. "Zelenka! Out here."

When he showed, John pointed out the trail. "I think we may have a security breach."

--

In the science lab, the second casket was being scanned. Using safety-measures, Rodney's team had been ordered to find out if anything lay inside.

--

In the meantime John paid another visit to the Infirmary, to see if Elizabeth had identified any of the symbols. That could help them identify what might have been inside the casket.

Carson and his team had finished attending to her injuries an hour after the explosion happened, which was four hours ago. Aside from what he had already seen, she also had one rib fracture and was bed-bound for the next forty-eight hours under Doctors orders, just in case it caused any complications.

John grimaced when he saw Elizabeth struggling to sit up for a glass of water, and quickly rushed over from the entranceway to help her out. "Allow me."

Accepting his help, Elizabeth painfully swallowed down the water given to her; it felt like the most refreshing thing she'd tasted in weeks. "Thank you."

"Your welcome." John put the glass back down for her, and then pulled up a chair beside her bed and sat down. "Well. This certainly makes a change; usually it's me on the receiving end of Carson's needles."

"Enjoy it whilst it last Colonel. I don't intend to make a habit of it, like some do."

John knew that implied him and quickly put on an innocent puppy dog look. Making her laugh a bit. Causing pain to shoot up her right side. "Ouch."

"You ok?" asked John, concerned for her well-being. She held out a hand to stop him from calling a nurse and nodded.

"I'm fine. I shouldn't laugh too much that's all. Aggravates the fractured rib."

"Sorry. Listen. I came to see, if you got far with translating the ancient symbols on the caskets we found."

Once the pain eased, Elizabeth tried to rack her brains to see what she could remember. "I only identified two symbols, I was in the middle of researching the others when the explosion happened."

"What did they say?"

"Enemy and Within. Not much to go on I'm afraid. How is the investigation going?"

John was about to answer when his earpiece activated and a message from Rodney was being received.

"No luck with the scan. It couldn't penetrate the metal casket..."

There was a loud bang in the background, which sounded like an explosion.

Elizabeth was frantic to know what was happening, when John lost the connection. "John."

The alarms started ringing, and a medical team were already rushing out the room.

John quickly followed, leaving one word of advice to Elizabeth. "Wait here."

TBC