Steph7085 – Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked the opening line of the last chapter and that you're enjoying the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter too.

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Chapter 7

John awoke to the smell of smoke and burnt metal, there was a sharp pain in his arm and another one around his rib cage. He opened his eyes slowly wincing at the new pain he discovered in his head. He tried to sit up only for something to tighten around his chest and hold him in place. Looking down he realised part of the strap that had held him in place on the shuttle was still wrapped around his chest and attached to the back part of his chair that was currently pressed against his back. Discovering it wasn't going to release him willingly he reached down into his boot and pulled out the combat knife that was fortunately still firmly strapped in place. He cut the strap from around his chest and made another attempt to sit up.

His first priority was the seething pain in his right arm and he looked down at it to see the piece of glass, probably from the shuttles front window, lodged there. He pulled it out slowly clenching his teeth together as he did so before he stood up. The area around him was partially on fire and there were bits of the shuttle everywhere, in fact it appeared as of there was more than one shuttle, at least two maybe three. Dead bodies littered the ground of the men and women who hadn't been fortunate enough to survive the crashes. Some of the survivors were helping the more seriously injured as the Rising Stars doctor – who fortunately seemed to have only suffered minor injuries – did what he could to help.

John's mind was on only one thing, finding Elizabeth. He'd obviously been thrown clear of the crash site so there was no telling where she had ended up. He walked through the crash site, past the smoke, the fires and the bodies. He saw the red sleeve of the top she had been wearing that day and quickly made his way over to it. He moved the thin piece of metal that had landed on top of her to reveal her hopefully unconscious body. Dropping down beside her he turned her onto her back and placed two fingers on her neck letting out a sigh of relief when he found strong steady pulse.

"Elizabeth," he choked out placing a hand on the side of her face and when she didn't respond he coughed to clear his throat and tried again. "Elizabeth," this time his voice came out stronger and she shifted slightly before opening her eyes. She looked confused for a moment until her disorientation passed and her memories came back to her.

"John?" she questioned as she forced her eyes to focus and he nodded his head.

"You okay, anything broken?" he asked as he helped her sit up and she did a quick mental scan of her body and found she was in massive amounts of pain but nothing was broken.

"I'm fine," she told him and he moved his hand to trace the cut on her head as he determined how bad it was. He relaxed when he realised it wasn't too serious and in fact she seemed to be less injured than him. He helped her to her feet and she took in her surroundings. Her eyes landed on one of the dead before moving to another body and another before she had to look away. She turned her head into John's shoulder and it only occurred to him now that she had probably never seen a dead body before and now she was faced with dozens of them.

He placed a hand on the small of her back whilst her head was still on his shoulder and he slowly guided her away from the majority of the wreckage and the dead. He saw the vehicles approaching and his hand instinctively reached for his missing weapon. Fortunately as the vehicles got closer he recognised them as belonging to the Alliance.

The cars stopped near him and the Alliance officers began heading into the crash site to offer their assistance. There was one Agent heading in their direction and John recognised him immediately.

"Marcus," he greeted and the man nodded in acknowledgement.

"You alright?" he questioned as he glanced them both over for injuries.

"We're fine, what happened?" John asked and Marcus turned and headed back toward one of the cars with John and Elizabeth following quickly.

"I'll explain back at base," he said before glancing over at the crash site and gesturing for the Rising Stars doctor to join them.

"I'm needed here," the doctor replied and Marcus shook his head.

"It's fine Carson the other doctors will take care of it from here, lets go," he instructed and Carson offered no more protest as he got into the front of the car with Marcus. John opened the back door of the large vehicle and helped Elizabeth to climb up the large step to get inside before he joined her.

Marcus started the vehicles engine and drove the car back in the direction it had come from. "So this must be Elizabeth Weir," he stated as he looked at Elizabeth through the rear view mirror. Elizabeth who had been staring out of the window distractedly snapped her head round to look at him.

"I am," she replied after a moment.

"Marcus Lorne, nice to meet you," he greeted and Elizabeth didn't even bother to force a smile she just nodded her head in acknowledgement of his words and went back to staring out of the window. She watched the trees at the side of the dirt road as they passed by the car and it seemed like an eternity before they got to the Alliance base and John was helping her out of the car.

They followed Marcus and Carson into the large building and through the many corridors to a small room. It had a few couches and what looked like some kind of game boards set up around the room. Marcus opened up a cupboard at one end of the room taking out a box and handing it to Carson. Elizabeth wasn't even paying attention to what was going on, she couldn't get the images of the crash site and the dead bodies out of her mind. She shuddered slightly and John who was standing right next to her seemed to notice. He once again placed his hand on the small of her back in a reassuring gesture that was more comforting to her than it probably should have been. Marcus gestured for them to sit down and John guided her over to one of the couches where they both sat but he didn't remove the hand from her back.

"Alright Marcus, you want to tell me what the hell happened?" John questioned as Carson began fussing over the wound in his arm. John allowed him to do whatever he wanted to unhindered as he focused his attention on Marcus's reply.

"It was the rebels, they've been getting more and more violent and have ignored all our attempts to talk to them. We got word that they'd gotten hold of some heavy weaponry but we weren't sure about it until today. The missiles originated just outside of their campsite on the outskirts of the city," Marcus began to explain and John winced slightly as Carson cleaned his cut before moving onto Elizabeth.

She flinched as Carson reached toward the cut on her head and John moved his hand up her back slightly to calm her. She allowed Carson to clean her own cut as Marcus continued to explain the situation to John. "All we can do is try to talk to them again," John explained. "They know they have our attention now so maybe they'll be willing to talk."

"They've never been real receptive to our people," Marcus replied.

"So we don't send in a bunch of people armed to the teeth, we go ourselves and carry only our handguns. Maybe they'd be more willing to talk if we don't look like an assault team," John suggested thoughtfully and Marcus nodded his agreement before standing up.

"I'll go tell the base commander," Lorne stated and turned to leave.

"All done," Carson announced to Elizabeth "Do you have any other injuries?" he asked them both receiving a no from John and a shake of the head from Elizabeth. Carson accepted their answers and followed Marcus out of the room leaving John and Elizabeth alone.

"Are you okay?" John asked turning to her and Elizabeth looked up from the spot on the floor she'd been staring at.

"I've never seen dead bodies before," she told him shakily and John moved his hand in a comforting circular pattern on her back.

"Losing people never gets any easier but seeing the bodies does, it'll get better," he promised her she could only nod her head in response "You can stay here whilst I go talk to the rebels if you want," he informed her and she shook her head emphatically at thought of him leaving her on her own here.

- - -

Marcus stopped the car just outside the rebel camp and he, John and Elizabeth got out and headed toward the gate in the makeshift wall. Night had fallen about an hour ago leaving only the stars and the light from the camp to illuminate the area. Elizabeth stayed close to John as they approached the guards who quickly drew their weapons. She unconsciously stepped closer to John who gave her a reassuring smile before turning his attention to the guards.

"Who are you?" one of the men asked.

"Agents Lorne, Sheppard and Weir of the Alliance," Lorne told them and Elizabeth was surprised to be once again referred to as an Agent.

"Alliance scum, perhaps you should turn around and go back to your Alliance base," the guard spat out in disgust.

"We only want to talk," John stated.

"Relinquish your weapons and we will escort you to the leaders," the guard instructed and Marcus shook his head.

"Not a chance, we only have our handguns with us and we're keeping them," Marcus informed him and the guard looked thoughtful for a moment before replying.

"Very well, this way," he said and the three of them followed him through the tents at gun point. John kept Elizabeth slightly in front of him the entire time with Marcus a few steps ahead of her, the two of them flanking her protectively "Wait here," he ordered before entering one of the tents and Marcus turned to John.

"I just hope he's not setting up an ambush inside," Marcus joked but his words did nothing to help the fear coursing through Elizabeth's body. Once again she found herself stepping closer to John. The man reappeared once more and held the flap of the tent open for the three of them to step through. Inside the tent was illuminated by several lanterns places strategically around the tent. Besides the guards around the edges there were five other people who were obviously the leaders.

"Well, well, the Alliance must finally be taking us seriously if they're sending three of there prestigious Agents into our midst," one of them, a well built middle aged man with dark brown hair and brown eyes commented and Marcus cocked his head thoughtfully for a moment.

"Arvin, didn't I arrest you last week?" he questioned receiving a shrug from the other man.

"Didn't stick," he replied "Now what do you want here?"

"To talk," John answered.

"Talking has never got us anywhere," Arvin stated flatly and their were several murmurs of agreement from the other leaders.

"You'll never get anything from us if you're no longer prepared to sit down and talk," John informed them.

"What exactly is it that you want from us?" Marcus questioned and the leader seemed to study them for a moment as if trying to judge whether talking to them would actually help.

"We want more supplies, more shipments of food and clothing. We weren't given enough after the earthquake that destroyed most of our factories and farms," Arvin told them "and that's just the start."

"The Alliance gave you everything they could spare at the time however I'm sure we can reach an agreement that will more successfully meet your people's needs but you have to be willing to compromise. Now you have to stop attacking us, we lost a lot of good people today when you blew up our ship. We can't get any supplies in here if you blow every alliance ship that a comes here out of the sky," John explained and Elizabeth was slightly awed by how easily he was able to talk to these people who a few hours ago had nearly killed them both.

"It is the only way we can get your attention," Arvin protested.

"You already had our attention which is why we were on our way here aboard the ship you destroyed. You have our attention so there's no need for anyone else's life to be lost over this. No more bombings, no more firing missiles at unsuspecting ships and the Alliance will continue to negotiate an agreement with you. Do we have a deal?" John asked and Arvin turned to the other leaders, the five of them whispered among themselves for a few minutes before finally turning back to them.

"You have a deal, we'll stop our attacks as long as the Alliance negotiates seriously with us," Arvin stated and John nodded in acceptance.

"A negotiations team will arrive in a few days," John replied which seemed to be acceptable to the rebellion leaders.

"Guards," Arvin called and two armed men walked into the tent. "Please escort our guests off the base."

Marcus, Elizabeth and John followed the two guards back toward the entrance they had used earlier. None of them relaxed until they were back in their vehicle driving away from the rebels. When they arrived back on the Alliance base the building was still abuzz with activity despite the late hour. Marcus walked away to talk to a young woman that was sitting at a desk, Elizabeth couldn't make out what they were saying but from the look on Marcus's face as he walked back toward them it hadn't been a nice conversation.

"We have the final count on the survivors," Marcus stated solemnly "Out of the 634 people on the Rising Star, including the two of you, we have nineteen survivors and three of them are in critical condition."

"Damn," John cursed under his breath as the three of them made their way through the corridors of the building.

"We have some quarters set up for you for the night and a ship will transport us all back to Alliance Headquarters tomorrow," Lorne informed them as they entered a small elevator. He pushed the button for the fourth floor and a few moments later the doors opened onto a relatively empty corridor. "Miss Weir," you'll be in here and John you're next door. I'll see you both in the morning," he told them before walking away probably to his own room.

"Are you okay?" John asked her for the third time that day.

"A little shaken up," she admitted "But I'll be fine, thank you."

"Goodnight Elizabeth," he said quietly before walking the short distance to his own room. Elizabeth turned and walked into the small bedroom, it was decorated with plain cream coloured walls and carpet and the only furniture was a bed and set of draws. There were two sets of clothes on the bed, one was clearly for her to sleep in and had a tooth brush and a few other toiletries resting on top of them, the other was for her to wear tomorrow. It only occurred to her now that she had lost all of her things aboard the Rising Star.

She placed the clothes for tomorrow on top of the draws and picked up the pyjamas before heading through a door into the tiny bathroom. She changed quickly and brushed her teeth before running a comb through her seriously tangled hair. She returned to the bedroom and climbed into bed continuing to ignore the pain her body was in from the bruises she'd sustained in the crash. Her head was still pounding and she knew her sleep would be plagued by images from the crash site. She was too tired to try and stay awake though and within seconds of her head hitting the pillow she was asleep.

TBC