Please see first chapter for disclaimer, pairings, warnings, etc.

Part 4/?

SapphireJewelledQueen: Thank you! I'm having so much fun writing this story, and I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Wraith named Michael: Thank you! I feel sorry for Ronon too, I was sitting here crying when I was writing this chapter. . .Sometimes I do wonder why I killed off Teyla. . .hm. You'll get to see more of Jadin and Kyana in this chapter, and meet Annie. And your friends have increased in number and are watching me now. . .hungrily. . .

Nerwen Aldarion: Thank you! And I'm afraid it's gonna be a bit before Teyla gets to go home. . . Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Thedummie2: Thank you so much! Sometimes on the show with Teyla he seems a lot softer a person than he typically does when he's just doing whatever, so I've always figured he had a softer side. And, besides, who doesn't like kids? I'm working on "Enduring Love" as quickly as I can, there's a few more chapters left, and I'm sorry I almost made you cry. . .Sorry.

Author's note: Sorry I didn't get out this chapter yesterday. I hope this one makes up for it!

Chapter 3

Heroes

"May I join you?"

Teyla looked up from her meal to find Doctor Weir motioning to the place across from her, tray balanced on her lap and cup of tea in one hand. There was a questioning look on her face, and Teyla quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and nodded. "Yes, please do."

Elizabeth smiled her thanks and maneuvered her wheelchair into place across the table from Teyla. "John is trying to poke Rodney into motion working on that mirror that deposited you here, and I didn't want to eat alone. When I saw you here, looking kind of lonely yourself, I wondered if perhaps you wouldn't mind some company."

Teyla nodded and smiled. "You are right about that. Ronon gave me so much to think about earlier. . ." She paused and sipped at her tea. "I briefly saw his son and daughter. Adorable children."

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, they are. Sometimes I think they and my daughter, Annie, are inseparable." She laughed slightly, her jade eyes full of good humor. "The trouble those three have gotten into in the past. . .sometimes I wonder how they haven't blown Alpha Site off the face of this planet yet. Or, at the least, all of our minds."

Teyla, curious, decided to ask a question. "Can Kyana and Jadin sense the Wraith?"

Weir's eyes turned thoughtful. "Carson has a theory on that. In truth we are not sure if they can or not, because we have not encountered Wraith here since we came here, which is good. Their mother could sense the Wraith because of the DNA inside her, so Carson seems to think that the twins should be able to sense them to at least some degree like her. You have the same ability?"

Teyla nodded and swallowed her bite of fruit before responding. "Yes, I do. That was why I was curious. . .I was wondering if the Teyla of your world had the same ability, and if it carried to her children." What she didn't admit why exactly she was curious; if she were ever to have children someday, she wanted to know if she'd be exposing them to the horror of sensing the Wraith.

Elizabeth shrugged slightly and tapped the tines of her fork twice against her plate. "As I said, we have yet to encounter the Wraith here and the children do not go offworld, so we aren't sure if they can sense them or not. Ronon hopes they can't, not as much as their mother at least. He's scared to death that it would scar them both for life as young as they are."

Teyla briefly thought back to her own experience as a young child and shuddered, also hoping that Jadin and Kyana would not have to experience the same thing. "As do I." Another thought struck her. "Does your daughter have the gene of the Ancestors?"

Weir nodded. "Not as strong as her father, of course. Since I don't have it, I suppose my genes in some ways counteracted the Ancient gene, and while Annie can use some of the Ancient's technology with ease, it is obvious that her gene is not nearly as strong as John's. Which, in some ways, is a good thing, and in others it is bad."

She supposed that was true. "I'm sorry for asking so many questions, it's just that things are so different here, and yet in some ways they seem so similar. I suppose the biggest difference I have seen is Ronon. . .he is so different from mine."

"You're married to yours?"

Sudden heat in her cheeks made her wonder why she'd ever brought the subject up. "No, I am not. No. We are just friends. What I mean to say is, this Ronon is so much angrier in some ways, so much more sullen. But when he was with Jadin and Kyana, he seemed happier. I am glad he has his children."

Elizabeth nodded. "I think that's what's helped him keep going after Teyla died. He's been so despondent for these past couple of years, but whenever Jadin and Kyana are around, you can always see a little bit of that old Ronon coming back. He's always happier when they're around, that's for certain, though I know that he misses Teyla terribly."

Teyla nodded and was beginning to say something when a loud, piercing alarm began to wail deeper within the fortress. "What is that?" she asked instead.

Weir had paled. "No. . ." She already had her wheelchair in motion, headed towards the doorway of the cafeteria. "That's the alarm to tell us when Wraith activity is in the area!"

Oh no. Teyla leaped to her feet and followed Elizabeth out of the cafeteria, trailing her all the way to the command center.

When the two women arrived, Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, Rodney, and a man Teyla recognized as Major Lorne were already there, all leaning over a small computer screen. Next to Colonel Sheppard stood a little girl Teyla assumed was Annie. She looked terrified, her hazel eyes wide with fear as she clung to Sheppard's leg.

Sheppard looked up when his wife and Teyla entered the room. "We gotta evacuate," he greeted them with. "I don't know how, but somehow the Wraith know we're here, they've finally found us."

Almost before the words were out of Sheppard's mouth the entire fortress shook unsteadily, and Teyla knew that the Wraith were beginning to bombard the surface, hoping to find their enemy's underground fortress and invade it.

Annie squealed and let go of her father, running to her mother and leaping into her lap, burying her face in Elizabeth's neck and whimpering in fear, her small body shaking all over.

Elizabeth held her daughter steady with one hand and reached for the radio in her ear with the other. "Attention all Alpha Site personnel, this is Weir. Please proceed to the Gateroom as quickly as possible for immediate evacuation. This is not a drill. Repeat: this is not a drill, please proceed to the Gateroom as quickly as possible for immediate evacuation."

Ronon muttered something and ran for the halls, dodging the first few evacuees who were arriving. Teyla hesitated, then followed him, having a feeling she knew where he was going.

"Ronon!"

He paused and allowed her to catch up. "Jadin and Kyana are in Kyana's quarters, or at least they're supposed to be," he explained to her as they started running again. "Do you feel anything?"

The feeling of the Wraith had been growing inside her so slowly she had hardly noticed it past the feeling of panic. "Yes, slightly. I believe the Wraith are directly overhead."

Ronon muttered a Satedan curse and picked up the pace. "We've got to get to the kids before the Wraith start getting in."

It seemed to take forever to reach Kyana's quarters, but finally Ronon and Teyla burst inside.

"Jadin? Kyana!"

Both children were lying on the bed, hands over their ears and tears streaming down their cheeks. They were curled into fetal positions and screaming at decibels Teyla was sure normal human voices weren't supposed to reach. "The Wraith," she said in horror to Ronon. "The children must have picked up my. . .I mean, your Teyla's mental abilities to communicate with the Wraith. Since they are children, the thoughts of the Wraith must be overwhelming them and it must have been so much easier for the Wraith to get into their minds."

Ronon muttered another curse and ran to his children, picking up Jadin as Teyla reached for Kyana. "It's okay, it's okay!" the Satedan kept saying softly to his children. "I promise, we're leaving, it's going to be okay."

Kyana stopped crying and looked up into Teyla's face, her look of fear transforming into surprise as she stopped screaming. "Mama?"

At almost the same moment Jadin turned around in his father's arms and caught sight of her. "Mama!"

Teyla looked up in time to see tears of pain in Ronon's eyes. She looked away, back to Kyana, and shook her head. "No, Kyana, Jadin, I am not your mother. I am sorry."

Kyana began to cry again and buried her face in Teyla's neck. "But you feel like our mother," she whispered.

Teyla looked up sharply at Ronon, who had both eyebrows raised. He shook his head: apparently he didn't even know what Kyana was talking about. Was it possible for the Wraith DNA in Kyana and Jadin and in her help the children to sense her presence in a way that no one had known?

Another direct hit to the base made the walls shudder unsteadily and the lights flicker. Kyana and Jadin screamed simultaneously as Ronon and Teyla made a break for the door.

"Locket!"

The cry from the child in her arms made Teyla pause. "Ronon!"

He turned around. "What?"

"Kyana said locket. What does she mean?"

Ronon turned and went back into his daughter's quarters, going over to the bedside table and snatching up a gold object lying there. "A locket," he said, holding it up for Teyla to see as they resumed their attempt at escape. "It's got a picture of me and Teyla in it. That must be how Jadin and Kyana recognized you. . .they've looked at her picture a thousand times. The locket was Teyla's. . .I gave it to Kyana for her second birthday so she and Jadin would have a picture of their mother to look at. All the other pictures we had were destroyed with Atlantis." Ronon reached out his free hand and slipped the chain over his daughter's head so the locket rested against the little girl's stomach. "Don't take it off again until we're safe on Beta Site," he warned his daughter.

Kyana had her head buried in Teyla's neck again, but she nodded to let her father know that she heard him and understood.

The four continued their flight down the halls of the fortress, headed back towards the Gateroom. By now the halls were pretty much empty, and each hit from above was coming harder and faster.

Another hit, only feet behind Ronon and Teyla, made the entire hall pitch and dumped both Ronon and Teyla to the floor. The Athosian wrapped herself around the terrified Kyana to protect her, cushioning the blow for her and covering her to keep the debris raining down on top of them from injuring the little girl.

A sharp pain in her leg made her grunt as she held on to Kyana, waiting for the rainfall of debris to stop. When it finally did, diminishing to dust, she raised her head.

The lights were out now; the only light they had were from the red emergency lights that cast weird flickering shadows across the walls, floor, and piles of debris lying everywhere.

Teyla coughed. "Kyana, are you all right?" she whispered.

The little girl coughed as well and struggled out from under Teyla. "Fine," she muttered, sounding terrified.

Teyla raised her voice. "Ronon! Jadin!"

Suddenly Ronon was next to her, eyes desperate. "Teyla, your leg. . ."

Teyla twisted her body and looked, feeling panic rise up deep inside her. A particularly large slab of concrete had fallen across her left leg, pinning it down and keeping her from being able to move it.

She was trapped.

She turned to look back at Ronon, opening her mouth to tell him to run with Jadin and Kyana, to get themselves out while he still could. But her words died on her lips when she saw the look on his face.

It was obvious that his mind had taken him back to the day Atlantis was destroyed, to the day that his wife had been killed, and that he was seeing her as his wife, trapped. There was a look of such heart crushing pain, such anguish, on his face and in his eyes that it made Teyla's stomach twist in sympathy. But she had to snap him out of it, had to make him leave. . .

Teyla reached up a desperate hand and curled it around the collar of Ronon's shirt, yanking to get his attention. "Go," she hissed through teeth gritted tightly with pain. "Get Jadin and Kyana out of here."

Ronon shook off whatever spell he'd fallen under and shook his head. "Don't. . ."

Teyla let go of Ronon's collar and gave him a hearty push in the chest. "I am trying to get myself free, just get Jadin and Kyana out! Go!"

Ronon blinked again, opened his mouth to protest. . . But then something changed. His eyes hardened and he turned to Jadin and Kyana, snatching them both into his arms before he ran down the hall.

Teyla allowed her head to drop down to her arms, resting on the floor. Finally. She twisted her body as much as she could and strained at the slab of concrete, pushing with all her might and trying to get it off her leg so she could escape too.

It didn't budge an inch. She wasn't strong enough to push it off. She was going to die here, in a reality that wasn't even her own, alone and definitely scared. "Ronon," she whispered to her own even though she knew there was no way he could hear her, "I am so sorry for never telling you. . ."

"Teyla!"

Her head snapped up from where she'd rested it on her arms again. The voice had been Ronon's, and for a split second she thought it was hers coming to get her. But instead of her Ronon she saw this reality's, his children gone.

He was coming back to rescue her.

"I told you to leave," she hissed angrily at him as he knelt next to her and reached for the concrete on her leg.

Ronon shot her a grin. "I never listened to my Teyla," he told her. "Why should I listen to you?" With a groan of effort, he managed to lift the concrete off her leg enough for her to pull it out. He allowed it to drop back to the ground as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her towards the Gateroom. "Besides, you told me to get Jadin and Kyana out of here. You said nothing about me."

Teyla shook her head, wondering if Ronon's brashness was the same in every reality or if it was just hers and this one. "This was very stupid of you, you know."

Ronon ducked involuntarily as another direct hit rocked the base. "Yeah, maybe. McKay got the mirror out, and Doctor Weir got Jadin and Kyana through with Annie. Sheppard's holdin' the door open for us."

Teyla clung to Ronon with her arms around his neck, watching in relief as the silver blue glow of the event horizon came into focus only a few seconds later. They were closer than she'd thought they were. . .

Colonel Sheppard glanced at the open Stargate and then back at them. "Come on, hurry!" He had his finger poised on a small remote in his hand. . .the detonate button for the self destruct. "I gotta self destruct this place before the Wraith get in!"

The three leaped through at the same time, Sheppard pressing the "Detonate" button only a split second before they did.

When they exited the other side, Ronon cleared the Stargate on one side as Sheppard cleared the other, and a moment later a column of fire followed them through the horizon.

Then the Stargate placidly shut down, and Ronon slumped to his knees on the floor, easing Teyla down with him. "That was close," he said. "Too close."

"Papa!"

Ronon was once more mobbed by two small kids, and this time Ronon wrapped his arms around Jadin, Kyana, and her, holding all three of them close to his chest as though he planned on never letting them go.

Teyla knew she didn't belong here, but for a brief moment she closed her eyes and allowed herself to fantasize that this moment belonged to her, her Ronon, and her reality.

To Be Continued. . .

I'm evil, I know. Next chapter up soon, if not tomorrow then hopefully the day after that! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!