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

Part 7/?

Chapter 7

"I hate waiting!" Kyana stated sourly from her little chair. She had decided to find a more comfortable spot than the table.

"What do you suggest that we do, leave and get shot?" It was obvious that Jake didn't like waiting either. He tended to get a bit irritable, and the sarcasm in his voice reflected that.

"No, I just want them to get back here soon. What's taking so long?" Kyana whined as she leaned over to view Jake's watch. It had only been three minutes—really? It felt like so much longer.

"Just running time should be another minute or so. You need to learn patience," Teyla admonished softly, lying down on a cot that she'd found. The Athosian leader always seemed to know what time it was without a watch. She was good at this. Either she was trying to teach her daughter, or she wanted enough silence to sleep—perhaps a little of both.

Kyana assumed that it was the latter since as of recent everyone on the team was getting four hours of sleep a night. "It's not easy. I want to be helping right now, and all that I'm doing is sitting on a chair made for someone half my size." She got cross when she was anxious, just like Jake.

"And complaining about it is not going to make it any easier. Try to find something to do to pass the time." Teyla wasn't even lifting her hand off of her eyes to look at her daughter: she was too tired.

"What do you suggest?" Kyana was willing to admit when she was bored. However, she was very careful to keep the bite out of her tone when she spoke. There was no point in getting in trouble.

"I suggest you sleep." Teyla said as she turned over on her other side, thus ending the conversation.

"Yeah, right. That's not going to happen," she said with a sigh and quick roll of her eyes. She was bored. B-O-R-E-D bored. Stiff.

She looked around for things to occupy herself. Finally, when her eyes had made it all the way across the room, she glanced up at Jake, who had managed to find himself a nice nap spot on the table above her.

"Entertain me, I'm bored," Kyana ordered with facetious airs as she poked him.

If she were any other person, then he would have either slapped her or ignored her, but this was Kyana. He slowly turned to face her and looked into her eyes, almost as if to ask her to take the request back.

She didn't.

He sat up with a moan. "Okay, what do you want to do?" Jake said as happily as he could.

"I don't know, you decide," Kyana said with almost a playful tone and a daring sparkle of her jade eyes.

He would give into those eyes any time. "Okay." Jake was thinking about alternatives, because he didn't have enough brain power to teach her any of the games that he and his sister used to play.

"Okay, have I ever taught you 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'?" Jake said with a sly smile. He liked teaching games like these; games that any human could play.

"What?" Kyana was confused.

"No? Good! I'll teach you now!" He was happy; they could still talk while playing. After all, it didn't take much brain power to play.

Kyana liked Jake when he was like this. When he was happy like this, his eyes lit up; this made her happy. There was something about Jake. She seemed to find joy in him. It was at this moment that she realized how much he affected her. When he was happy, so was she. What did that mean?

They spent the next while playing and talking. They enjoyed being able to talk again now that Jake was free and Teyla was asleep. They were content.

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"Mom!" Skye said this in a very loud, scared voice.

"Shh! What is it?" Elizabeth walked over closer to him so that he didn't have to speak as loudly.

"They're getting closer," Skye whispered as he looked out the window. "What are they going to do? Who are they going to hurt?" He whispered this even quieter so Jadin couldn't hear, because he knew the truth. He just didn't want to acknowledge it.

"They won't hurt anyone. I'll make sure of it," Elizabeth said with iron determination as she took his hand and walked over to the cot where Jadin was. She called the others over, not want to say what she had to, but she had thought this out. She knew that the people out there, whoever they were, were just trying to hurt Jadin. Otherwise, what would've taken them this long? She presumed that the reason it took this long was that they didn't want to hurt anyone else. She thought that if she could get everyone inside the shack to surround him, then it could stall their enemy until John and Ronon got there.

She resolved this just as she reached cot, and looked around at the windows. If she could move Jadin an inch to the left, then the only window they could shoot through would be the one to the right.

Jadin was sitting upright now, so she sat in next to him between him and the window.

"So, how are you doing? Is there anything I can do for you?" Elizabeth didn't want Jadin to know her plan, so she allowed her voice and facial expression to betray none of her inner turmoil.

Jadin turned to angle her better, thus putting himself almost directly in line with the window.

"Uh, can you move a little to your left? I need to see out the window." Elizabeth knew what she was doing, or at least she fervently hoped that she did.

"Yeah, sure. Ahh!" Jadin groaned loudly with pain as he shifted again, this time too quickly. "Okay, I'm not doing so good. I think that it's getting infected or something." Jadin said that as though he weren't in excruciating pain, but all that you had to do was look in his eyes to tell that he was in agony.

Elizabeth was impressed with his threshold for pain. This was undoubtedly something that he got from his father.

"Let me see it, son." Carson always came running at the word "infection." He moved over with a stool and nudged Elizabeth out of the way.

Weir looked at him, and then looked at the window. She decided that if she moved an inch or two, then; between Carson and her, Jadin would be safe.

Jadin lifted his bandage up. "Ewww!" said Skye from the foot of the cot. He ran to the head, where his sister was.

Alex realized that she could get a better view from the foot, so she ran there. Besides, she was still vexed with her brother.

"Okay, I need to disinfect this, but it's going to hurt, do you think you can take it without pain killers?" Carson asked Jadin.

"Why can't you give him any pain killers?" Elizabeth was really feeling sorry for the boy that she considered her nephew.

"Well, they take a while to work. I figure that by the time their in effect, we won't be here," Carson said the last part with a lowered voice, his brogue growing heavier with concern.

"Just do it!" Jadin snapped, wanting it to be over with.

Carson got the required medical utensils and started to work.

"Hang on!" Alex almost yelled as she ran over to Jadin's head.

"What?" Jadin asked, frustrated that she'd interrupted.

Alex handed her friend a piece of cloth. "In case it hurts too much, you can bite on this." she said caringly.

The two paused a moment, just looking at each other. Finally, "Thanks. Thanks a lot," Jadin said to her retreating form as she started to walk away.

"Ready now?" Carson asked, instruments poised to begin.

"Ready," Jadin said as he started to grip the bed.

Carson started to work, and it was about eight seconds before Jadin realized how much this was going to hurt. He was gripping the bed until his knuckles were white, teeth clenched so tightly to hold in his gasp of pain that he thought his jaws were going to explode. He had been looking at the ceiling, but decided to close his eyes so no one could see him cry.

After Alex got a good idea for what was going on, she moved up to the head of the bed again. Her caring little heart hurting, she bent down to talk in his ear. "Are you okay? Uncle Carson has done this on a lot of adults, and all of them were crying by now. And they even had pain killers." Alex was impressed by her friend's amazing courage, but at the same time she was still worried.

She didn't get a response. "Are you alive?" She asked in a mildly sarcastic voice, trying to hide how worried she was.

There was a pause. "Yeah, I just don't wanna talk. You can still talk to me, though." He still wouldn't open his eyes, but he liked it when she talked to him. It's always good to have a friend's company, right? "Okay," he finally conceded.

Alex wanted to talk to him to get his mind off of what was happening, but she didn't know what to say. She couldn't ask him anything, because that would make him have to talk. "I don't know what to say," she admitted in a small voice. Then she looked at his face and realized that he probably couldn't hear what she was saying—it was just a familiar voice that he wanted.

She was too tired and distraught to think of something worth saying, so she started talking about what was on her mind. She told him what she wanted to be when she grew up and about the family that she wanted to have. She knew that he wasn't listening, so she said whatever she wanted.

Carson finished up with his work and Jadin still lay on the cot with his eyes closed. He stayed like that for a minute or so. Finally, when he thought that all of his tears had gone, he opened his eyes and looked around.

Elizabeth was still in her strategic position and Carson was up cleaning his tools and stuff. Skye was sitting against the wall close to the foot of his cot, but where was Alex? He turned his head, frantically searching what part of the shack he could see, but he couldn't find her.

Jadin took a big, nervous swallow and opened his mouth. "Where's. . ." He felt a tap on his forehead. "Up here," said a familiar voice, and he craned his head backward to see. Alex was still sitting at the head of the cot, smiling with something he could only think was relief. "Have you been there this whole time?" Jadin tried to squirm to see her more, and without craning his neck. When he did, Elizabeth shifted too.

"Yeah. How are you feeling?" Alex said in the exact same tone as her Uncle Carson. In fact, it was so similar that Elizabeth started to laugh. "What?" Alex said as she snapped her head around to stare at her mother.

"Nothing. It's just the way that you said that. It sounds like something Carson would say." Elizabeth decided to stop laughing now, since no one else seemed to find the humor in her discovery. "I'm doing. . ."

Snap!

"What was that?" Skye asked, his relieved smile disappearing in favor of worry. At least this time, he'd remembered to not yell.

"Honey could you check?" Elizabeth asked her daughter so that she could stay positioned.

"Sure, Mom." Alex walked to the window that Elizabeth was blocking and nonchalantly looked out. "Three of them are outside this window now. I wonder how many more there are on the other sides," Alex said as she walked over to her mom. She got in her lap and curled up, looking at Jadin.

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"See what I mean, the lady has the kid blocked," said one of the guys, looking in the window.

"I don't see what the problem is. Why don't we just shoot her and then shoot the kid after she falls?" said the second.

"Because, you idiot, that's Weir; as in, the leader of Atlantis. The dumbest thing that we can do right now is kill her. Maybe if we can walk over to the other window, we'll get a better shot," growled the third.

"No, that won't work. The kid is right under the window. We would have to stick our arm in and angle it down for that to work. I say that the three of us wait here, and we leave two on that side. He'll be toast if he moves an inch in any direction. Is it a plan?" asked the first again.

"Yeah, I'll step away from the window and radio beta with the plan," conceded the third.

And so they waited.

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"Okay, I've made it and now I'm here. Now I need to hang tight and wait. Hold on. What am I waiting for? Is John supposed to come here or am I supposed to fly there? No, if I was supposed to fly there, then I should remember John telling me. Maybe I am supposed to be there and all of the adrenaline is making me forget. That makes sense. Otherwise, why wouldn't he be here by now? John's a faster runner than I am and I got stopped by the girl. So I should go get them. Where are they? That's it; I should radio John and ask him where he is. But, what if he's compromised and radioing him will give his position away? No, if he was compromised, then I hope he'll be smart enough to turn his radio off. I'll radio him."

Upon finishing this conversation with himself, Rodney pushed the button on his radio to contact John. "Uh, John, where are you?" Rodney asked.

He heard a noise. Was it coming from the radio? It was more like a thump. No, that wasn't right either—it was like someone was pounding on the back of the Jumper!

"I'm here, it's me, let me in!" John yelled from outside, aggravated.

"Hold on, you told me to come and get you," Rodney said questioningly.

"Why on earth would I do that? I told you to stay here until I came. Are you okay? Did you have any injuries to the head?" John was being half funny, but he was kind of worried about Rodney.

"No, I'm fine, but if you said to open it to only you, then how should I know that you're John Shepherd?" Rodney was really too tired and confused to be in charge of anything.

"I'm me. Well, I bet that doesn't cut it. My wife's name is Elizabeth, my kids' names are Skye and Alex. Your sister's name is Jeannie, and your name is Meredith. Does that help?" John was starting to get impatient, which made him mad.

He figured that the answer was positive when the Jumper door dropped slowly downwards. "Thank you, now let's go!" John said as he shooed Rodney out of the pilot's chair so he could fly the ship.

It was to be expected, but John was praying that Rodney would sit in his seat like a good boy.

No such luck. "Where? Where are we going? What's going on?"

"We're going to get Ronon, Jadin, Carson, my wife and kids, and some guests. Then, we're going to load up and fly over to get Teyla, Kyana, and Jake." John already had the jumper in the air and they were on their way.

"Where has Teyla been and why are we . . . Whoa, wait a minute! Jake? Why is he here? I thought he was . . . why is he here?" Rodney thought that they were very valuable questions.

"Teyla has been with us. We've been hiding from the bad guys and devising a plan. Jake is here because he was sent to kill the Dex family, but instead, saved all of our butts. Now, does that help?" John thought that it would be easier to answer the questions then to pass them off and let Rodney keep annoying him.

"Well, I guess it helps. Who are the bad guys?" The answers helped, but there was still so much that he didn't know.

"All right, I'll tell you what. I don't really know the answer to that question, so I'll make you a deal. I'll let you ask another question. But, there's a catch, you can only ask one more question, so think carefully and I'll tell you the answer if I can." John would've done almost anything for that moment of silence that he had while Rodney was thinking.

"Who are the guests that we're going to pick up with Carson and them?" Rodney was proud of the question that he thought of.

"They are the four bad guys that were surrounding the shack that the others were in. Hopefully, they'll be stunned by the time that we get there." John was about a third of the way there by now.

"Why would we. . ." Rodney was trying to ask another question, but he was cut off by a rude look.

"Look, I could've just told you that we were picking some bad guys up, but I chalked my answer full of as much information as possible. I held up my end of the deal, now shush!" John snapped. He still hadn't given Rodney eye contact. He hoped that if he was rude enough, Rodney would leave. He was right. Now all that he had to do was fly a ten minute flight in three without being noticed.

No problem. All in a day's work. Oh. . .crap.

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"Why are they all moving to that window?" Ronon asked himself as he surveyed the area. Think positive, think positive, right. "Okay, I'll just take it as they want to make it easier on me. That works."

Ronon started to close in on them, making sure to go unnoticed. "Wait. Weren't there four? There's only three. Oh, there he is." Ronon noticed the shadow of the fourth on the other side of the shack.

"Hold on, why am I talking to myself? I sound like McKay!" Ronon said softly, shaking his head in disgust.

This time he turned to the privacy and quiet of his thoughts. So, if I head in, take those guys out, then the fourth is going to come running from . . . that side. That means that all I have to do is be ready. This is too easy. He decided that talking to himself wasn't as bad if other people couldn't hear. He had a plan—a good one.

So, a few second later, the people inside the hut heard a swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Ronon could hear his son going, "Yes! Dad's here!" Then a cautionary: "Shush, there are four. We only heard three shots," coming from someone that he guessed to be Alex.

"Oh!" Jadin said very softly, clapping a hand over his mouth. Over his fingers, his brown eyes looked huge.

Elizabeth was worried. Now that the others were down, the last was probably going to try and take out Jadin.

Zwoop!

Never mind. Elizabeth sagged in relief at the sound of Dex's weapon discharging again, taking care of their last assailant.

Ronon ran in and went straight for Jadin, pushing the others out of the way. Jadin sat up with a moan. "Are you alright? Let me see it," Ronon said as he sat on the cot next to his son.

Skye wanted to talk to Ronon, but his sister poked him sharply and told him not to. She was right; they needed to give the two a moment of privacy.

Elizabeth was worried about something and Skye could tell. She started to walk up to Ronon, but Skye held her back. "Wait a minute, let them finish."

He said it so sweetly that she decided to obey. Instead, she walked outside and touched her radio button. "John, where the heck are you?" She sounded mad, but she was scared—scared and worried.

"Uh, I'm in the Jumper, almost there, why?" John said as if she was supposed to know what was going on.

Elizabeth exhaled with joy. "What? I thought the plan was to . . ." she got interrupted.

"The plan was changed. Is Ronon there?" John knew that she didn't have to know everything to be content.

"Yes, he just got here. He's talking to Jadin. We're ready whenever you are," she said in a cute voice.

"When he's done, tell him that I'm two minutes away. See you then." He was happy to hear her voice, but there wasn't much else to say.

"See you then. I love you. Weir out." Letting out a deep, cleansing breath, she walked back inside and tried to find Alex.

Elizabeth spotted her digging through a box in the corner. With a triumphant grin, Alex pulled out some rope and headed outside.

"Uh, honey, could you please save that for Uncle Ronon?" Elizabeth knew that Alex was good at tying knots, but she also knew that there were more harmful people outside that could be anywhere.

"Yes Mom," Alex said as she rolled her eyes in a manner that plainly stated that her uncle got to have all the fun. She dropped the rope and sat on a stool, arms crossed and lower lip out in a slight pout.

After they had finished their very brief conversation, Ronon stood up, grabbed the rope, and went outside. A minute later, he came back in and stood in the middle of the room.

"John should be here within the minute," Elizabeth said as she looked up at Dex.

"Okay. He said that he would park as close as possible, so you shouldn't need help carrying your stuff, right?" Ronon said to Carson.

"No, you just get Jadin, and I'll take care of my stuff, thank you." Carson was used to Ronon carrying his stuff for him whenever possible, but he could handle it.

They heard a noise, and Skye (being closest) peeked out the window. "It's Dad!" the younger Sheppard shouted in a voice that was overflowing with excitement.

"That it is." Elizabeth liked how John was always her hero. Of course, she forgot that it was Ronon that just shot four guys all by himself—but who wouldn't in the face of such a dramatic (albeit late) arrival by one's husband?

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The enemy had split up into teams of two and they were searching the village and the woods.

"Hey, I think I see something!" said Six.

"What?" said his partner, Seven, craning his neck to see.

"Look, over in that hut, there's a candle lit and there are shadows. Everyone is searching for Teyla right now, so who's in there?" Six asked proudly. He was swollen with pride that he had noticed something as small as that when the hut was so far away.

"Yeah, I guess that it's worth checking out." Seven didn't want to sound excited, that meant that Six was better than he at searching.

Silently, they headed over, being sure to stay out of sight of anyone who might peer out the window. Once they got to the hut, Seven saw that Six was right: they could see Kyana, but that was it.

All of the other windows were shut. They knew that there was at least one other person on one side, and another with Kyana. However, they didn't know who these others were and if there were more than even that.

"I don't think it's worth risking; let's radio Five and Three. The four of us should be able to take them." Seven decided to step up and say what Six must have been thinking.

"Hey, get over here, we have them, but need back-up," Six said into his radio, paused, and then continued with his directions, shooting Seven a "shut up" look.

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Jake hopped off of the table and sauntered over to the window. "Yeah, what I thought," he said as he headed back.

"What?" Kyana was wondering why he interrupted their game of tic-tac-toe.

"The enemy is closing in on us." Jake said this in a tone so apathetic that it was a tad scary.

"How many are there?" Teyla said as she sat up, concerned.

"Mom, how long have you been awake?" Kyana was concerned that she had been eavesdropping on her and Jake's conversation.

"When Jake got up to look out the window he woke me up," Teyla responded in a tone that Kyana knew meant her mother was lying.

At least Jake didn't know. "What are we supposed to do?" Kyana was starting to realize what this meant.

"Well, first, we should barricade the doors, then move to the middle of the room where they can't shoot us from the windows, then hang tight until your dad gets here." Jake was barricading as he spoke. He had been through all kinds of scenarios like this in training, but he had guns in all of them.

"How can you not be scared?" Kyana was almost mad at his coolness towards the situation.

"I don't know, I guess that it's a mix between military and macho," he said in his cute voice. In truth, he was scared out of his wits, but how was admitting it going to help anything? All it would do was make the others more nervous than they already were.

"The doors are barricaded, let's go. . . in here," Jake said as he walked around looking for a good spot. He found a rather large pantry-type room.

"I do not know who the owner of the house is, but they seem to be wealthy. Most of the houses here are only two to four rooms. This seems to have six," Teyla said as she walked to the pantry and looked around, her hair mussed and a tired look in her eyes.

They hadn't gone deeper in the house before because they hadn't want to invade the family's privacy. However, now they figured that it was too late to worry about that. At left them to huddle in one area that they knew they would be safe for at least a moment or so.

"Jake," Kyana said in a quiet voice so only he could hear.

"Yeah?" he responded, tone equally soft.

"I'm scared." That admission cost her more than Jake would—could—ever know.

He knew this by looking in her eyes. This was odd to him. He wasn't used to her being afraid of anything. What made this so different? Jake thought for a second, then realized the truth with a mixed sense of pride and fear.

The reason that Kyana hadn't been scared before was that it was only her own safety on the line then. This time, she wasn't scared for herself; she was scared for her family. She was more afraid of her family being hurt then for herself.

Jake now had a new respect for her as he moved over to sit next to her. He put his arm around her shoulder and smiled down into her intelligent green eyes. "You don't have to be, you know. I'm here, and I promise that I'm not going anywhere." He saw that Teyla was watching, but he didn't care.

Kyana snuggled into his side, but didn't return is smile. "So now we wait. Great." She said under her breath, and prepared to wait. Again.

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"Here we are. Right now, your job is to help in whatever way necessary to get everyone back on the Jumper. I'm going to get the stunned guys into the ship and Ronon is taking care of Jadin. So, all that you have to do is help Elizabeth get the kids buckled in. Any questions?" John was obviously quite good at multi-tasking to be able to land the Jumper and lecture Rodney at the same time.

"Yes, why exactly does Ronon need to help Jadin?" Rodney's lack of knowledge made him feel less important. Usually, he was the first person to know everything.

"Because, he was injured by the enemy. Now, are there any questions that you have that pertain to your job?" The Jumper was now landed, so Rodney just shook his head and headed to the back door. John lowered it, and together, they exited.

Once they were at the entrance of the shack, Rodney went inside and John went all the way around to make sure everything was secure. He was pleased to find that while tying them up, Ronon had left a pull rope to make it easier on him. He grabbed the closest one and headed back.

By the time that he arrived at the Jumper, Elizabeth was coming out of the shack. Her eyes met John's and she smiled. He dragged the unconscious bad guy into the Jumper and headed back out.

His wife intercepted his path to the rest of the bodies. "Wow, you look tired," she said as she wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I don't know why. I feel as awake as a bear after hibernation," John said as he put his arm around her slender shoulders and started to walk towards the other men.

"So, why the sudden change of plans?" Elizabeth was so happy to talk to him after what felt like hours of suspense and tension.

"We got here and I realized what it would do to the kids to kill those people in front of them. I didn't want murder to be a heroic thing to them. We thought that the new plan would be just as effective as the old, so we went with the flow and hoped for the best." John was kind of proud of himself for being responsible.

They now reached the others, and John grabbed a rope and looked over at Elizabeth. To his surprise, she had grabbed a man too. He smiled at the thought of her trying to drag him, but wondered if he should slow up for her or leave her behind. He decided to go slower. When he looked back at Elizabeth, she had passed him and was giving him a pleased grin. "See you back at the Jumper, dear!"

Half-smiling at her eternal spunkiness, he sped up and was doing all that he could to keep up.

"How are you doing this?" John was proud, but he also felt a lot weaker.

"I didn't just run who knows how many miles, and fly alone with Rodney. I don't have a reason to be tired. Plus, I grabbed the smallest one on purpose." She said this as the got back to the Jumper, still energetically dragging her prisoner. However, now that she was there she was having a hard time getting her man in the Jumper. Ronon was already there, so he saw her trouble and grabbed the rope from her to ease her struggles.

"Thank you, Ronon," she said to him as John was dragging his guy in.

Sheppard let his man down and then looked around the Jumper. Everyone was in the ship, including the last man. He walked over to him and looked at him with a confused look, wondering how he'd gotten there.

"I went around the other end of the building and grabbed him while you getting yours," Ronon said it with a pleased smirk.

"But. . . Okay guys, prepare for take-off." John realized that it wasn't worth going into. They needed to leave.

"Jake made it sound like there are more on the mainland. I hope the others are safe." The Jumper was now in the air, but the trouble was far from over.

To Be Continued. . .