Rating: T
Disclaimer: Same as Part 1
Author's Notes: Thanks for all the reviews. Today we meet 'The Bear'
Edit I have to say how sorry I was to learn of the death of Paul 'Dr Wally' Walters the producer of Wake up to Wogan after a long illness, he will be sadly missed
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"Keep you hands where I can see them" said a voice, everyone put their hands in the air.
"Pu...Pudsey?" stammered Fran
"Miss Fran?" he asked
"Yes, yes it's me" she answered
"Who's with you?" he asked
"Alex Ramsey" replied Alex
"Max Wainwright and the children" said Max,
"Oh thank God they're safe, the Major and the Lieutenant have been half out of their minds with worry" he replied. The three women heard the sound of the safety catch being replaced and slowly turned around to see the owner of the voice standing before them. Pudsey was a tall, muscular man with sticky out ears and a mop of blond curly hair that he kept out of his eyes with a red and white spotted bandana, he always reminded Max and Alex of a teddy bear. The sounds of frightened sobs broke the silence, "I'm sorry kids I didn't mean to scare you" he stepped further into the light "it's me Sgt Pudsey, see", he said as the children peered out from behind Fran, Max and Alex. "Where are you going?"
"To the east of the city where the sensors are blind" said Alex
"That's where we are," replied Pudsey
"We? There are more of you?" asked Max
"There's about fifteen of us still free at the moment, military and civilians" he scooped Stuart and Patrick up into his arms "follow me," he said as he strode off. Alex picked up Jason and Jamie
"Hey I can walk," said Jason who started wriggling
"I'm better at keeping up with Pudsey," said Alex as Jason gave up wriggling and let out an enormous yawn, Jamie had fallen asleep almost as soon as her feet left the floor, Fran picked up Kelly, Max scooped up Maria and they all followed Pudsey.
"You said something about the Major and the Lieutenant, who do you mean" asked Max quietly as Maria was asleep, Pudsey smiled and nodded at Maria and Stuart
"Major Lorne and Lt Cadman" he whispered, "they've been scouring Atlantis looking for all of you", Max sighed
"No wonder they've been going frantic" murmured Max as they turned a corner and came face to face with Sgt John 'Boggy' Marsh who was on guard.
"Pudsey" Marsh beamed as he saw the children in his arms "the Major will be pleased to see you," he said.
The group made their way into the makeshift camp,
"Look what we found sir" said Pudsey to Major Evan Lorne as the group moved further in. Lorne was sitting, propped up against the wall as Terry, a doctor from the Irish contingent, was cleaning up a cut to his head
"Maria, oh my God Maria" he said as he struggled to his feet. Max shook Maria gently to wake her up
"Look who's here" she said
"Daddy" murmured Maria as Max handed her to Lorne
"Oh baby, I thought I'd never see you again" he hugged her tightly "I thought I'd lost you" he said
"Been hiding in a cupboard with Max and the others then we went to find food and found Alex then we crawled for ages until we found Pudsey" said Maria. Lorne kissed his daughter
"You're safe now" he looked around "all of you" he said
"Ah, will ye look at that, yer man will be alright now" said Terry
"Major, where's my daddy?"
"Have you seen mummy?"
"Is daddy here as well?"
"Where's mummy?".
The rest of the children clustered around Lorne asking questions
"Easy" he said with a smile, "now I really don't know where your parents are but because their important people I'm sure they're ok" he said guardedly. Some of the other refugees gathered the children up and began to make a fuss of them,
"So what do you know?" he asked Alex, Max and Fran
"I saw them taking Drs Zelenka, Kusanagi and Kavanaugh somewhere and I'm pretty sure they've found the kitchen, I spent five hours under my desk after a group of soldiers saved my life " said Alex sadly.
"I saw Sgt Stackhouse and his men halfway between the Schoolroom and the Gym they looked like they were retreating, I was trying to get to the Jumper bay, Dr Weir told me to get the children to the mainland" said Max
"The guys I saw told me to get to the jumpers too he said they were trying to evacuate as many people as possible" put in Alex, Lorne sighed
"We only got about half the jumpers away, the Genii over ran the bay pretty quickly, we knew you weren't on them because I had Sgt Dedicoat stationed there till the end, that's why we spent so much time looking for you. I would have killed the Genii with my bare hands if they'd hurt you and the children" he said.
"The guys I met, who are no more I might add, said that Sheppard was trying to get a distress call out, do you know if he succeeded" Alex asked
"I have no idea, I do know he sent some communication guys and Ronon to the mainland" Lorne replied
"Bet he didn't like that" remarked Fran.
"He wasn't happy but Sheppard wanted him to get on to our allies to see if they could get a message to the Deadalus, it's only about three days out" he said. There was a commotion outside and Laura Cadman came running in followed by Dr Parrish and Katie Brown and Sgt Alan 'Deadly' Dedicoat.
"Marsh said the children have been found" she said, Lorne smiled and pointed to where they were all asleep, Laura pushed her way over to where the children were
"Stuart, thank God I thought I'd never..." she said as she dissolved into tears, Fran went over and started to comfort her
"I take it Carson's been captured" said Max.
"Looks like it, we haven't seen any of the senior staff for nearly seven hours, Sheppard and Teyla would have made their way here, they know it's a meeting point" said Lorne.
"Next time d'you mind sharing little pieces of information like that, if I hadn't have met Max I'd be still sitting under my desk or dead or a prisoner of the Genii" retorted Alex
"Sorry, I'll try harder next time" he said with a wry grin. Alex shook her head and took the rucksack off her back
"Blimey I forgot about this" she handed the pack to Lorne "it's food, MRE's, Power Bars, fruit, water, cookies and flapjacks I don't know how long it will last" she said, Lorne grinned
"Should have known I could rely on you not to let us starve" he replied as he handed the pack to Cadman, who started to hand the food out.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city...
John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Elizabeth Weir, Teyla Emmagen, Carson Beckett and Radek Zelenka were pacing, not very successfully, in one of the cells in the Brig.
"Look Lorne is still out there and so is Laura, Ronon's on the mainland and the Daedalus will be here in a couple of days" said Sheppard,
"All we have to do is sit tight and not do anything stupid" said Elizabeth, she glared at John as the last comment was directed specifically at him.
"I'm worried about the kids, what if Max couldn't get them to the jumper" said John,
"I trust Max and Fran, the will not let any harm come to the children" said Teyla reassuringly
"Aye Max is a good 'un and I know Laura and Lorne won't rest until they've found them" said Carson.
The door to the Brig opened and two men stepped in, the jaws of Rodney, John and Elizabeth dropped open
"It can't be, it's not freaking possible" gasped Sheppard.
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AN: Another evil cliff-hanger I know. See I did manage to get Boggy, Deadly and Pudsey in and Terry too.