Chapter 3: Rubble road block
"Evan, you need to rest," Teyla's voice took on an insistent, stubborn edge that said she'd make him rest if he didn't do it voluntarily. They'd decided to attempt removing some of the rubble blocking their way - enough to see how deep it went and whether there was any chance they could make a path to the other side. It had been an hour already ... an hour of careful work, testing each piece before shifting it for fear of bringing more rubble down on top of them. The signs were promising and so they'd continued at the same slow and steady pace. Lorne had stubbornly lifted rubble side by side with Teyla despite his shoulder wound, the only saving grace being that even the largest pieces were lift-able by two people - with varying degrees of effort of course.
"I'm ... okay," Lorne totally missed the warning in Teyla's tone, everything in his world about choosing his next piece, lifting it, spinning and depositing it behind them. He didn't notice the blood running down his bare arm but as Teyla grabbed him and spun him too easily towards her, she did.
"You are bleeding again!" She glared at him reproachfully, pushing him down to sit on one of their shifted boulders and kneeling in front of him. Pulling his vest open she lifted the neck of his t-shirt and then sighed at the blood soaked bandage that was revealed.
Lorne glanced down at his shoulder dispassionately. "Stitch it," he said firmly, looking up at her expectantly.
"Evan ...," Teyla frowned, her eyes meeting his. She knew how to do what he'd requested, had done it in the past, but their current conditions were hardly ideal for such an activity.
"I need to be able to keep going Teyla," Evan pointed out grimly. "If you stitch the wounds the bleeding will stop ... otherwise you'll be carrying me out of here. Please," he added when she continued to hesitate.
"Very well," Teyla reluctantly agreed, taking the first aid kit from her pack and quickly assembling what she needed. "But you will take the morphine first," she insisted.
"No," Evan grabbed her wrist and held on without hurting her. "No - it makes me ... loopy and I need to be alert just in case there are other Ancient systems running down here. I can't leave you unprotected Teyla."
They looked at each other silently for a few moments before Teyla nodded, turning away to begin. "Do you have another t-shirt?" she asked lightly, understanding how important it was for him to continue to take charge of her safety and equally understanding she shouldn't deny him that nor draw attention to it. When he shook his head she helped him remove the one he was wearing, nothing of her emotions showing on her face.
It was painful ... and it was all Evan could do not to flinch and put her off but eventually the job was done, back and front, and Teyla was cleaning up and packing everything away again. Lorne slowly put his t-shirt back on, skin crawling a little as the still slightly wet and sticky shoulder and sleeve settled back into place. "Teyla," his voice was low and careful, his gaze earnest as he waited for her to look at him. "Thank you," he said simply when she did.
"You are welcome," Teyla put a hand on his good shoulder on her way to return the first aid kit to her pack. Returning to the rubble still blocking their way she glanced sideways at the Major. "You will rest for a few moments Evan ... I can continue our work alone for now."
"Right," Lorne agreed reluctantly. "Just for a minute or two," he added firmly. Resting his head against the wall he closed his eyes, blood loss on top of an hour of exertion making it hard for him to stay awake. When Teyla looked over to check on him a few minutes later he was asleep. With a smile she continued her work, carefully making an opening they could both fit through.
"Teyla?" Lorne awoke with a start, blinking in confusion before an instant later the entirety of their situation came back to him. "Teyla?" he called again more insistently into the empty space.
"I am here," Teyla's head poked through a hole in the wall, her face grimey with dirt but a smile evident.
"You got to the other side?" Evan pushed himself up from the floor, swayed for a moment and then steadied. Putting a hand to his shoulder he winced as he carefully rotated it in a small circle. "It's fine," he said in response to Teyla's unspoken question. He walked to her, craning his head to look around her to the 'tunnel' she'd made.
"The rocks became smaller and easier to move the closer I got to the other side," Teyla wriggled from the hole, dropping lightly to the floor arms first and quickly rolling to standing. "It is not far - perhaps a body length plus one half."
"O-kay," Lorne looked at the way out, rolled his shoulder a couple more times and then with a sigh hoisted himself up and into the space. It had looked a lot bigger when Teyla had been lying in it ... his taller, more muscular physique only just fitting. He had to use both arms to pull himself forward - he tried to be careful and could only hope he wasn't undoing Teyla's careful stitching job. Of all the places to be injured! It was if 'someone' had known Evan would have to commando crawl through a tunnel of rock and had deliberately given him an injury that would make it as hard as possible. He had a few more scrapes and scratches to go along with his shoulder wounds by the time he finally reached the other side, dropping to the ground and only just rolling before his bad shoulder hit the ground.
"God," Lorne swallowed back a groan of pain. "I'll just lie here for a moment," he thought, head resting on the floor swimming dizzily.
"Evan," Teyla was suddenly kneeling beside him, the water canteen held out for him. Taking it gratefully he leaned up and took a few small swallows, knowing they didn't have a huge supply of water and that there was no telling how long it would be before they could get more.
"I checked your wounds," Teyla surprised him by saying ... when had that happened? "The stitches appear to have held."
"Thanks," he handed the water back and took the power bar she offered him next, pulling himself into a sitting position against the wall. Teyla sat down next to him with her own power bar, the two eating companionably. "So ... you think Colonel Sheppard and the others are already looking for us?" he asked.
"I am sure that John would let no others lead the search," Teyla said with a smile.
Lorne was silent for a moment before he spoke again, the darkness lit only by their torches giving him the courage to say something he'd been meaning to say for a while. "You're good for him," he said simply.
"Thank you," Teyla turned to smile at him, her eyes shinning with pleasure.
"He was always ... friendly," Evan continued, shifting to get comfortable, "but there was a barrier there, you know? A line you didn't cross. Most of the time you hardly noticed - except for times like now, when everyone's excited about the holiday."
"Christmas was a difficult time for John for many years," Teyla said softly.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to change his mind?" Lorne asked. When she slanted him a curious look he shrugged. "The regs, if you take them at their strictest, apply to the two of you as well. I was just ... curious about the Colonel's motivation to put that aside."
"Just 'curious'," Teyla repeated with an amused smile. "There is nothing else motivating your interest?"
"Ah ...," Lorne struggled not to flush, neither confirming nor denying Teyla's suspicions that there was someone driving his interest.
"I assume you know the story of Scrooge," Teyla let him off the hook, settling back herself as she began the tale. Lorne nodded. "Last year, as John tells it, he had his own experience with the elements of the story."
"What - a ghost of Christmas past, present and future?" Evan asked, something the Colonel had said to him at last year's party coming back with clarity. "He told me," Lorne said in surprise. "Not the details but he said that was the reason he'd changed his mind about my leave request."
"They were not real ghosts of course," Teyla explained. "But I believe .... as does John I think ... that an old friend showed him exactly what he needed to see to force him to act. Before it was too late and his course was locked in forever."
"Well, whatever the reason I'm glad things worked out for you both," Lorne concluded.
"As am I," Teyla smiled again. She waited a few moments before speaking again. "And what would it take to force you to act on your feelings Evan?" she asked knowingly.
"I don't ... ah ...," he stopped, not wanting to lie to her but unable to confirm her suspicions either.
"You have feelings for Laura Cadman, yes?" Teyla didn't wait for him to confirm or deny it. "And yet you have not told her. Why?"
"You know the non-frat regulations Teyla," Evan's evasion was a confirmation in itself but he didn't notice in his efforts to explain. "At their strictest they prohibit non professional relationships between anyone in the armed services under the same command as well as civilians in their employ. For Atlantis that means no-one should be dating anyone else ... although I know Colonel Sheppard has been a little lenient on that when there's no real connection between the two people concerned."
"So in your mind John and I are in voilation of these regulations?" Teyla asked.
"Well ...," Evan hesitated, not wanting to upset her. "Technically yes, but you could equally argue that not being from Earth means you're not bound by the laws governing conduct."
"In agreeing to live and work on Atlantis I agreed to be governed by the same rules as everyone else," Teyla countered.
"It's a difficult situation," Evan frowned, resting his head back against the wall and closing his eyes again. He'd spent a lot of time thinking about the regs, testing within himself his belief in their need and purpose and had come to the conclusion that they were valid. If he were in command of a mission and Laura was in danger he knew himself enough to know he'd have to act. He wouldn't throw out the mission objectives but he wouldn't sacrifice her for them either. It was that simple. The real sticking point in his mind, the thing that had him lying awake at night worrying was that he wasn't in a relationship with Laura, had carefully admitted nothing to her or anyone else, and yet he'd still act that way. It didn't matter that he didn't get to express his feelings or share them with Laura because they were still there. He should be talking to Colonel Sheppard about it but the idea of admitting he'd fallen for someone attached to the expedition, someone the regs said he couldn't have, was more than a little uncomfortable. Instead he'd stepped back from Laura as much as he could, stopped seeing her as a friend outside of shifts, tried to ignore her hurt and confusion at his actions, and just generally made himself miserable missing even the small part of her he'd previously allowed himself.
"You should talk to John," Teyla could see the torment on his face, even under the limited light of their torches.
"I know," Evan turned to look at her, forcing a smile. "And I will ... when everything else stops working."
"Evan," Teyla began.
"We should get moving," Lorne pushed himself up the wall, turning to shine his torch into the darkness they still had to travel through. Glancing at his watch he frowned. "Three hours overdue," he commented, holding out a hand to help Teyla up. "They should be up there looking for us by now." Keying his radio he got the expected static he'd gotten the other times he'd checked. "Probably need to be closer to the surface still," he commented.
"John sees more than you give him credit for," Teyla squeezed Evan's hand before letting the matter rest. Stopping, she tiltled her head, testingly. "Do you feel that?" she asked softly.
"A faint breeze," Evan nodded. "There's access to the surface somewhere ahead."
"Yes," Teyla looked at Lorne carefully, noting that although still pale he seemed steadier.
"Let's go," he walked forward slowly, taking the lead position, focussing everything on getting them both to safety. There'd be time enough to worry about the rest when they were back on Atlantis.
Teyla noticed the faint scratching sound first. "Evan," she put a hand to his arm, stopping and listening carefully again. "There is something ahead," she said in a low tone, eyes narrowed on the darkness ahead.
"I hear it," Evan agreed. Switching from his torch to the P-90 light he moved forward again, weapon at the ready.
They came in a rush ... snarling, hungry. They were rodent like in appearance, but a hell of a lot bigger than any rodent Lorne had ever seen, and in numbers too great to count. Teeth glinted in the light along with the flash of bullets fired in short bursts. The creatures fell but more pushed forward to take their place, forcing Lorne and Teyla to step back the way they'd come. Their numbers and the lack of good illumination was a lethal combination that would have already proven fatal were it not for their abilty to fire large numbers of rounds in quick succession. "Thank God for automatic weapons," Evan thought as he rapidly slotted in a second magazine and resumed firing.
"There are too many," Teyla yelled, efficiently firing at a creature about to leap on her before spinning to cover them from the right side.
"Keep firing!" Lorne yelled back, taking down creature after creature, the noise of weapons fire and the howls of pain and anger from the creatures immense.
Teyla had been right ... there were too many. As they took step after step backwards Lorne was aware that time wasn't on their side. Either they'd run out of bullets or run out of tunnel ... and if they ended up trapped against the rubble it wouldn't be long before the creatures got too close to fight off with a P-90. His day had just gotten a whole lot worse!
