Previously:

John pulled a detonator out of his pocket. "I disagree. He's not going to get crushed or burn to death." With the flick of a switch, the building exploded behind them - crumbling as if it was no more than a house of cards.

John and Aiden set out at a jog to catch up with the others. Sheppard's leg twinged in discomfort where he was hit with the second stinger. The Wraith enzyme seemed to be holding back the full brunt of its effects. John just hoped that the withdrawal from the dose of enzyme wasn't too terrible. They still had a two day hike to the gate. Longer with injured among them. He didn't need to add himself as a liability.

Rodney jumped at the explosion, his shoulders jerking up as his head went forward in some lame instinct to protect himself. Turning around, he saw the smoke billowing up through the trees. Reaching wildly for his radio, Rodney called, "John?! John, come in."

"We're fine, Rodney. Keep going. We'll double time it and meet up with you in a bit."

Rodney glanced at Teyla beside him and saw the relief on her face that he knew must be reflected in his own. Teyla continued walking, helping a girl no more than eight walk along with what looked like scars from knife wounds on her exposed arms. Rodney's eyes followed Teyla - the way she'd looked when he and Lorne first saw her ingrained in his mind.

"Teyla!"

Strapped to a table, she lay at a forty-five degree angle - her arms, legs, and torso bound with thick leather. The entire lower portion of her face was covered with a metal piece that took Rodney back to watching Shredder attack Master Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Feeling sick to his stomach at seeing Teyla tied up like some kind of experiment, Rodney quickly untied her bindings while Lorne continued down the hall to free the others. Teyla grasped his arm and rose unsteadily to her feet. Once sure she could stand on her own she released him, grabbing the metal on her face. Rodney felt along the back portion on the back of her head, finding a release mechanism which opened the device. Teyla quickly flung her silent torture device away from her. Rodney watched it bounce across the floor as Teyla experimentally stretched her jaw muscles.

"Come on. We need to get out of her."

"Wait." Teyla grabbed his arm again to stop him, her voice weak and hoarse with lack of use. Rodney watched her reach underneath the long slightly shredded skirt that she wore and realized with horror that she was removing a catheter-like tubing. She grimaced in pain, her head involuntarily shaking minutely as if shuddering. Taking a deep breath, Teyla opened her eyes and nodded to let Rodney know that she was now ready.

Lorne pulled up the rear of their caravan, scanning the trees for any movement. His team flanked the left and right of the large group while Ronon took the front, leading a woman blind from the swelling of her face by the hand. Duggar carried a boy on his back, no more than four or five.

Evan's whole body tensed with a seething rage. Doing experiments on men and women deserved death and in his mind, a little of their own medicine. But to do these things to kids ...there was a special hell for people like that.

They'd been lucky there had been relatively little resistance. There had been guards, but looking back Lorne seriously doubted they were anything but guards for the prisoners themselves - meant to keep them in line for transport between rooms.

One of the more elderly women of the group tripped in front of him and Evan reached to help her up. She smiled weakly and quietly thanked him, patting his hand and continuing her painful walk. He wished he could do more to help her, wished she didn't have to walk with everyone else, but there was nothing for it.

It was too dark for this. Everyone was exhausted and though Lorne didn't want to say it, he was pretty positive the threat was gone. Still, if there was one thing he'd learned, it was to never get cocky and off your guard in the field. Things could go to hell in a handbasket mighty fast. Besides, it looked as if dawn was approaching. He loved planets with short nights.

An explosion sounded so loud and so close behind him that he could feel the heat singe the hairs on the back of his head and the opened mouth terror of the people in front of him were noticeably lacking their screams.

Oddly enough, Lorne's first thought was, "And it was going so well."

John and Aiden turned to each other when they heard the explosion. Without saying a word they both set off at a dead run, following the sounds of the screams and weapons fire.

"Lorne! What the hell is going on?!"

Yelling into the radio, Lorne replied, "....ship. I..s....ri...over us."

"Get those people scattered in the trees. We're on our way."

Evan looked around at the chaos of people running and thought that order wouldn't be much of a problem. Some people were so terrified they looked around helplessly, afraid that if they moved they might run straight into the next explosion.

John and Aiden got to the others faster than he would have thought and with less energy expended than he knew was normal. It felt like the beginning stages of turning into a bug all over again and considering what planet he was on, that really did not settle well with him.

Smoke billowed up out of craters where the ship had struck. Sheppard looked above, the ship looming in a static position - blocking out what little light dawn was affording them.

John ran to Lorne's position. "Where's the bazooka, Major?"

"Sorry, sir," Lorne replied, adding dryly, "Rogers really wanted his extra Mars bars."

"They should really be standard every mission, don't you think?"

Evan grinned while reloading. "Mars bars or bazooka's, sir?"

"Both," John replied with mock seriousness.

Their weapons were doing absolutely nothing against the shield of that ship - which if John didn't know any better was of Ancient design. As if that wasn't just swell, then the troops came in. The only thing that gave them away was the white light of the beaming technology as they landed. John pulled his TGD's on. There had to be at least fifty of them. So with Ronon, Aiden, and Lorne's team that gave them one against seven.

John aimed his P-90 and fired. The bullets bounced harmlessly off a shield. So, big alien space ship blowing holes in the ground. Check. Invisable enemy. Check. Invisable enemy with personal shields. Not cool - and check.

The question was - were they like Goa'uld shields where knives could get through or Ancient shields were they were just shit out of luck? Considering which galaxy they were in and their choice of transportation, John was guessing the latter but it didn't hurt to check just in case. Unsheathing one of his knives, John threw it at the closest inviso alien. Score one for the home team. Personal shield was not effective.

John passed on this intel to the others and set to work.

He couldn't believe it. They'd actually done it. Seven to fifty and they'd actually done it. There was still the ship to contend with but it had remained auspiciously silent while it's men had been on the ground. John's TGD's flickered off, their power finally draining - having lasted for the whole battle. Taking the glasses off, John took a look around.

Lorne eased one of his men down to the ground out of sight. His shin was badly broken, the bone sticking out of the skin - yet the man had stayed standing and finished off three others before it was all said and done. Ronon pulled his long knife out of a body, his arms and pants splattered in blood.

Before John even had time to truly breath in their accomplishment - if you could ever really call so bloody a slaughter that - white light shone around him again.

No.

John gripped his two knives, keenly aware that now he was at a serious disadvantage.

Teyla ran. She ran so hard and so fast that her chest burned and her leg throbbed incessantly. She did not care. Teyla and Rodney had hidden the children and the ones too injured to offer assistance as far from the explosions as she could. Now she had to get back. She had to help them.

Rodney huffed, his face a stark contrast of white and red, sweat poring off of him when he finally reached the ship again. It looked almost humorous to come into such a sight without the TGD's on. A few people randomly striking out at air in the middle of a forest - until that is Rodney saw one of those few people hit paydirt, blood coming from seemingly nothing. Rodney quickly pulled out his TGD's, the scene changing drastically. There had to be forty or more people on the ground. The majority of which were picking up far more blue on the thermal glasses than the others. Why, Rodney had no idea. Knowing the blues to be targets, Rodney aimed his 9 mil and fired. Deflected. Ah - that explained the blue. A shield could definitively alter a thermal reading.

Rodney's eyes widened as the blue figure turned around and looked at him. Crap! He had seen blood. How had he seen blood? Maybe the shield only guarded against high velocity weapons. But that meant hand to hand. Rodney really didn't do hand to hand. In fact, he did quite terribly with hand to hand. He couldn't even use the sticks that Ronon kept trying to teach him with. His gym teachers had always told him that his hand eye coordination sucked. Okay, so they hadn't so much as said sucked because they were teachers and teachers didn't tell their....Rodney ducked as the blue man tried to hit him. Okay, not panicking. Plan A - Rodney used his crouched position and jutted forward to try and knock his opponent off his feet. Which did not work if the fist in his side was anything to go by. Their momentum still taking them forward, Rodney tried to grasp the man's right arm to stop his swing and managed to get his foot behind the others calf, sending him sprawling backwards. Unfortunately, he grabbed Rodney's vest pulling him down as well. The alien man wrapped Rodney in a headlock and pounded his fist into the side of McKay's head. Shocked and with a blistering pain now in his head, he couldn't think how to retaliate and the man kept hitting him. One of his arms pinned between them, Rodney reached down on his thigh, unsheathing a knife Ronon had given him years ago that until this day Rodney had never used, and plunged it into the man's side. Rodney was instantly released from his headlock and pushed himself on his hands and knees.

"Always have a plan B," Rodney muttered as he watched the strange blue thermal face come to rest on the ground.

"Rodney!"

McKay looked up, trying to find the voice. It was John.

"You got any more of those?"

Shaking his head in incomprehension, Rodney asked, "What?"

"The TGD's!"

"Yes, uh, in my pack. Give me just a minute!"

Rodney ripped his pack off his back, digging around to find the extra pair he had stowed away. There! As his fingers wrapped around them, a sharp stinging pain radiated through his brain and out his right eye from his temple. Rodney yelled and vaguely heard John's voice in the background. Rodney tried to claw at the object in his temple but someone standing behind him prevented the move. When his eyes started getting heavy, Rodney realized that this must have been what happened to Teyla. He knew he couldn't be dying because the pain in his head was fading and he wasn't in enough pain to be dying.

Something barrelled into Rodney's head, sending him flying backwards. Having still been on his knees, his body fell back oddly with his feet trapped awkwardly underneath him. Something bony impacted with his head but not hard enough to constitute a hit. Rodney tried to move whatever it was off of him while pulling the device out of his temple at the same time. Getting free of his attacker, Rodney sat up trying to blink the sleep from his eyes as if that would help remove the sedative from his system. Looking behind him, he saw John - or who he assumed was John - beating the crap out of another blue man.

Sheppard stopped when the other no longer moved underneath him and quickly got to his feet. Just barely panting, John turned. "Rodney, you get those glasses?"

McKay looked down at his hand. The lenses were broken. Rodney reached up for his own. "Here, take mine."

John shook his head. "No you keep them."

"You can do a hell of a lot more than I can with them. Take them."

John didn't bother answering, just taking off, leaving Rodney there holding the glasses.

It amazed John how easy it felt to kill. Not easy in the sense of morals or whatnot. When you're defending your life or that of others, morals aren't at the top of your mind. No, John was amazed at the sure ease he was feeling now - this particular instance. The odds were horrible but he was defending himself with an ease he knew he had never been capable of before. It was the enzyme. He'd seen it in Ford. In Teyla and Ronon. In himself even. He could see why Ford hadn't wanted to give it up - wouldn't want to give up this advantage. Another jumped on his back, trying to stick that damn device in his head. That's all they seemed to be trying to do. None were using any weapons of lethal force. John flipped the man and was surprised by how quickly his opponent got back to his feet, lashing out at him again. Sheppard struck the enemy in the chest so hard that the man fell to the ground. John waited for a retaliation when he heard it.

"John!"

He looked up and could see Teyla no more than twenty feet away from him. Their eyes locked for a single moment and then she disappeared. Anger and panic fought for dominance in his body as he surged forward.

"Teyla!"

He didn't know where to hit. He couldn't hear anything to help above the fighting everywhere around him.

"Teyla!," he yelled desperately. A blur of color flashed in his peripheral vision and John saw her, blood dripping out of her temple as she flung something on the ground trying to twist out of the grip of her invisible captor. Cold calm slipped into John's blood. Teyla wretched herself free right as John got to her side and John struck out with his fist, firmly connecting with facial bone. John grabbed for cloth, not letting go when he found it - falling to the ground and pouring his rage out over and over again on an enemy he couldn't even see. White filled his vision and his hand connected painfully with the dirt. Suddenly on his hands and knees, John gazed around. Everyone else had paused as well.

John looked up - expecting the ship to open fire. Instead, it lifted and disappeared from sight.

Lorne gaped at Rodney. "What just happened?"

The scientist looked as bewildered as the rest of them. "I-I don't know."

John got up off his knees.

"Do you think they found the others?"

John's eyes jerked at the sound of that voice. It was Teyla. She was covered in dirt and grime and a little blood, her hair as long as when he first met her. Quickly scanning her body, he didn't see any apparent injuries. Teyla was alive and whole and right in front of him.

John was vaguely aware of Rodney answering. "No. I mean, I don't think so. They went in the opposite direction."

Teyla seemed satisfied with that answer, nodding tiredly. John stood directly across from her, five yards between them. When she turned away from Rodney her eyes collided with his.

He stood rooted to the spot, staring at her. In some part of his mind, he knew that the others were talking, walking away to help gather the wounded. He just couldn't stop looking at her. After all his searching, he'd finally found her and he still couldn't bring himself to touch her. John hated himself for it. He's a coward and he knows it.

Teyla swayed slightly on her feet, a small almost hysterical huff of laughter escaping her lips that wasn't really directed at him but at everything - at being free, at being with them, at the sheer accomplishment of what they just went through. There were tears in her eyes - of joy or pain John's not sure which - and when she took a step toward him and her right leg buckled something in John snapped and before he knew what he was doing, he's moved the distance between them and stopped just in front of her.

Teyla began to think John was hesitating as he had always done but John reached for her hips, lightly putting his hands there and tilted his head forward. When she realized what he was doing, the tears Teyla refused to let fall for the last ten months and twenty days finally left her eyes and she returned his gesture, resting the top of her head against his forehead - the Athosian greeting this foreign man had accepted with ease and somehow turned into something entirely different. Something theirs. Teyla closed her eyes, bringing her hands to rest on John's arms as she soaked in his presence.

His hands tighten reflexively at the contact, clinging to her to know that she's really alive and really there - making sure she can't disappear from his sight ever again. He isn't yet aware how fiercely she is clinging to him as well.

"I knew you would come, John."

He's heard her say it before and prays to god he never has to hear her say it again. John's voice was hoarse, whispered. "Always, Teyla."

And with that simple statement, he confirms what they've both been denying from the very beginning. She squeezed his arms lightly and broke the Athosian embrace. Opening her mouth to speak, her words were cut off by the sound of John's radio.

"Major Lorne, this is Colonel Caldwell on the Daedalus. Do you read?"

John heard Lorne reply as Teyla met his eyes again. "That explains why the ship left," she mused.

John smiled a small one sided grin. "Guess so."

He really had to stop staring at her. Clearing his throat, John surveyed the area. Old habits die hard. "You said something about hiding the others?"

For less than a moment, it looked as if something dimmed in Teyla's eyes. Looking briefly over his shoulder, she nodded, "Ronon and Rodney have already left in that direction."

"John," she continued, "how is my son?"

His eyes softened. "He's safe. Waiting anxiously for you." Grinning boyishly, he added, "I'll be uncle of the year when I bring you home."

Many emotions flooded through her eyes. Relief. Joy. Guilt. The last caused him to nudge her with his left hand, which John belated realized was still on her hip. "Hey."

Teyla looked up at him briefly before staring pointedly at his shirt. "I have missed so much."

"Not your fault," he said firmly. "And you get him for the rest of your life." He really wanted her to look at him again so he repeated his slight nudge while saying, "Not too bad, huh?"

Her lips twitched. "No," she replied in that adorable polite way that she always did, finally upturning her brown eyes to look at him again.

"I'm glad you're back." Well, that just kind of slipped out. A rush of words he hadn't consciously thought about before they fumbled out of his mouth. Upon listening to them out loud John realized they weren't actually as telling as he had thought. In fact, it was a little too un-telling. He didn't want her to think she was just a colleague or anything so mundane to him but he figured 'I love you' was a little much with everything else going on. By the way his heart leapt into his throat at the mere thought of saying that, John decided definitely too much. Even though she was technically in his arms, he still felt he should add something to that statement. "I missed you."

She smiled - that smile that lit up her whole face and made her eyes sparkle. Her look softened and John felt her palm against his cheek, her fingertips in the hair just at the back of his head. "I missed you as well, John."

"Colonel?"

John clicked his radio as Teyla slowly stepped back to give him some room. "Go ahead, Lorne."

"Daedalus is ready to beam us all aboard, sir."

"Lorne, I told you - you really don't have to call me that anymore."

Teyla's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Yes, sir." There was a definite stubborn lilt behind that voice. John sighed.

"What did you mean..."

Teyla's question was cut off by the tell-tale sign of beaming technology.

They'd been separated shortly after arrival on the ship. Teyla had been sent directly to the infirmary while John conferred with Colonel Caldwell. When Teyla first spotted Jennifer she was so utterly shocked that she must have looked just like a Gibalta fish.

"Jennifer!," she finally exclaimed. "You are with child."

It was quite possibly the most inane thing Teyla had uttered in her entire life. Jennifer just laughed and rubbed her swollen stomach. "Oh this! Nonsense. I'm just retaining water."

Raising a lone eyebrow, Teyla smirked. However she was very aware that there were many who needed to be tended to. "You will have to tell me all that I have missed once we are again in Atlantis."

Smiling, Jennifer agreed. "We'll have a girls night."

That was hours ago now. Jennifer had finished Teyla's examination though she would have a much more thorough and trying medical exam once in Atlantis. There was much to discuss of her time away, however much Teyla did not wish it. Teyla remained in the infirmary to help comfort the more severely injured of those captive alongside her. Many of them were from worlds still unused to technology and the young ones were especially frightened or overtly curious of everything.

Teyla heard John's voice before she saw him.

"Drop it, Rodney!"

"I'm just saying..."

"Rodney..." That warning tone always seemed to get through to McKay and with a sigh, Rodney said no more.

They rounded the corner and John smiled pleasantly as if nothing was wrong. Even if Teyla had not heard that conversation, she could easily see by Rodney's dejected worried expression and John's forced ease that something was ...off.

"What is wrong?," Teyla asked quietly, not wanting to wake the little girl she had just gotten to sleep by singing an Athosian lullaby.

John tried to look innocent. "Nothing."

She was hurt that he would not confide in her. Teyla wondered if her earlier questions might have something to do with what was troubling him. "Earlier you told Major Lorne that it was not necessary for him to call you 'sir' any longer. Why is that?"

John quickly sent Rodney a look, cutting off anything the scientist might have been thinking of saying. Returning his attention to Teyla, he said casually, "Lorne's getting promoted to Lt. Colonel."

It wasn't a lie, John thought. It just wasn't the whole truth. He didn't know why he didn't want her to know. It's not like she wasn't going to find out soon enough anyway.

Teyla smiled genuinely. "Major Lorne will make an excellent Colonel. He is well deserving of such an honor among your people."

John agreed. "Lorne's a good man and an even better airman."

It was quiet for a moment and John turned his eyes to the sleeping child. Rodney was still stewing and if he didn't divert the man's mind, he was bound to bring up the topic again. "Doc had the baby yet?"

"What?" Rodney jerked away from his thoughts. "Oh. No. Still a couple of months yet."

John raised his eyebrows, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "You know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Yeah," Rodney smiled. "She's a girl."

John's smile was genuine when he saw how happy his friend was. "Congratulations, Rodney."

"Yes. Congratulations to you both," Teyla agreed. "I must admit I was most surprised when I first saw her."

Rodney, realizing his emotional display and because he was Rodney thus uncomfortable with it, grew serious and rambled, "Well, I'm still pretty sure I'll end up ruining the kid. Jennifer will be great. She's so nervous, though I have no idea why. And I keep having these horrible dreams that Jennifer and the baby get eaten by a whale."

John shook his head. Rodney and whales. "You got a name picked out?"

"No. Jennifer said something about wanting to see the baby to find a name that 'fits', whatever that means."

Teyla nodded. "Many Athosians name their children in the same manner. If not honoring someone they hold dear, parents will wait until they have gotten to know their child before bestowing a name they find appropriately matches their personality."

When Teyla glanced at John, dark intensity lingered in his eyes. Someone they hold dear. Blinking his mask back in place, John smirked, countering, "You could always name her Meredith."

Rodney's mouth dropped open at the affront. "Oh ha ha. That is so funny. Really! I'm rolling here. That never gets old with you, does it? And to think I missed having you around."

"You missed me?," John teased.

Rodney raised up his hands. "Don't ask me why. I must have been having a particularly bad Zelenka day."