A/N: Sorry for the delay, life called and though I tried to pretend I was Papa John's, it would just not allow me to put it on hold.
As this started as a Halloween adventure and it is creeping up on Thanksgiving, I promise, I am getting this one wrapped up this week. Thanks for the feedback, I plan to put it all to use!
Elizabeth missed her bed. Dearly. Even more than that she was missing her dignity. That seemed to be plummeting to increasing lows each minute that passed. But now, she'd be happy to be curled back up in bed with John.
Currently, she was standing on a step ladder trying not to fall. John stood next to her holding Teyla by the ankles who stood on his shoulders peering into the ceiling panels above them.
"I am sorry; I still do not see it. Perhaps if we could get a taller ladder you could get up here yourself." Teyla's muffled voice drifted down to them.
"Teyla, there's got to be a camera in there somewhere, I've seen video feed from this corridor before and from this angle. We have to be close. "John said.
"You're sure you know what to do if we find it?" Elizabeth asked using her free hand to prop up her tiring other hand still tethered to John's wrist which was now fairly high above her head, even with the stepladder.
"Sure, you just take the clampy thing from the laptop and connect it to the wire on the camera and we've got ourselves a video feed. " John said.
"Yes, but Lorne obviously isn't in this hallway. How are we going to access all of the video feed?" Elizabeth asked pointedly.
"Well….I haven't exactly figured that out yet. First things first. Teyla?"
"I may see something, John, I need to get a bit closer. "
John turned his eyes towards Elizabeth and she instantly had a bad feeling. "John no, whatever you are thinking I think this had gone far enough."
"You don't even know what I was going to say." John protested.
"I don't need to. It's going to end badly, that's all I need to know."
"You don't know that. Now listen…"
Five minutes later Elizabeth was standing on a chair, arms still stretched high in the sky. But now John stood on the stepladder with Teyla once again on his shoulders.
"I think I see it, pass me the clamp." Teyla called.
John wobbled a bit as he removed a hand from the stepladder to take the cord from Elizabeth. His other hand was still clamped firmly around Teyla's ankle.
"What's going on?" Ronan's deep voice emerged quite close to Elizabeth's ear.
Elizabeth hadn't heard him approach and couldn't still her body as she jolted with alarm at his appearance. She wavered into John and as she edged sideways on the chair to steady him, her chair buckled and she twisted to the ground bringing John and Teyla with her.
They lay in a mangled heap in the floor and as Elizabeth blinked her eyes trying to focus, she saw Ronon smirking down upon them. "Still handcuffed?"
Elizabeth looked beside her, finding John still looking confused. She brought her free hand around and whacked the back of his head.
"Hey! I didn't tell him okay. Look, he can see." John rubbed the back of his head nodding down towards their hands with his head.
Ronon was pulling Teyla to her feet.
"Are you okay?" Elizabeth frowned. That's all they needed, to hurt one of their friends who had been pressed into helping them conceal their secret. That would be fun to explain to Carson. John stood up, helping Elizabeth to a standing position along with him. He seemed only to be worried about his head, so Elizabeth assumed no permanent damage had been done.
"I had a feeling this morning, but he didn't tell me. I got some knives, I could-"
"No!" Elizabeth, John and Teyla all cried at the same time.
Ronon shrugged, still smiling and totally unfazed. Elizabeth was timidly testing her ankle which protested whenever she tried to put weight on it. Great, just what they needed. If she didn't put too much weight on it…that wasn't so bad. Walk it out Elizabeth, toughen up she thought.
"Dr. Weir? We're having some problems with the internal communications systems. We have staff members all over the city coming to pick up new radios, but they don't seem to be working consistently. Do you copy? You might want to get down here and pick up one of other field radios."
"Thank you Chuck. Who is working on the issue?" Elizabeth asked.
"Zelenka. He seems to have it under control, we can bring up McKay from the lab-"
"That's all right Chuck; we won't do that unless Zelenka asks. I think Rodney would be more of a distraction today anyway." She thought picturing McKay flitting about oblivious to the fact he was still wearing a wig. She'd swear she could hear Chuck snickering through the radio.
"Yes Ma'am." Chuck's voice wavered.
Elizabeth turned and met John's eyes. She faltered for a moment, indulging in their warmth. There were so many other ways she'd prefer to be spending a day with him, but at least they were together. And she knew with certainty he was safe, unlike when he was offworld on a mission. Come to think of it, if they managed to get out of this with the handcuffs intact, she might have to stow them away. They could come in handy the next time he was hell bent on disobeying an order and trying to kill himself.
"What are you smiling about?" John asked.
"Oh, nothing. We'd better get moving." Elizabeth tried to hide her mischievous smile. She took a step and her knee buckled under her ankles protest. Her smile dissolved as her lips pressed together trying to mask her yelp of pain. Her eyes darted back to John as she realized she wasn't sure she could walk.