Date : 21.01.2009

Title : Because You're Mine

Author : ElaineDex

Chapter : 8 of ?

Rating : M

Pairings : Major Evan Lorne/Dr. Ellie Harrison

Major Evan Lorne/Dr Hope Stewart

Lt. Col John Sheppard/Lyssa Hunter

There may be other pairings but am not certain just yet.

Warnings : Some Sexual Content, Romance, Angst, Maybe Some Strong Language.

Feedback : Yes please, always welcome whatever it may be.

Disclaimer : Dr. Ellie Harrison, and any O/C's are mine. Lyssa Hunter belongs to Kazavid and is from her Atlantis stories Behind The Mask and Reunions. Dr Hope Stewart belongs to chrisxgirlx and is from her Bleeding Love series. Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately, has nothing to do with me.

Summary : Lorne never thought that he would see Ellie again after she was taken by the Wraith. Now, fifteen months later she's backbut where does that leave Hope, Lorne's new love and can Lorne give up the chance to be with his one true love again?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Thanks to chrisxgirlx for help with Hope.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Eat it," Lyssa urged and Ellie looked down at the piece of chocolate cake that sat before her.

It did look delicious as always…but she still had no appetite.

Lyssa sighed and regarded her friend.

She and Teyla had gotten together and done a little make-over on Ellie. Teyla had trimmed her hair, just taking enough off so that it was only slightly longer than when Ellie had been captured by the Wraith and now her long brunette curls had more bounce to them and thanks to some kind of herbal mixture that Teyla had then proceeded to wash Ellie's hair with, it now shone wonderfully too.

They had fixed her up with a smaller pair of combats and Teyla had gotten one of her Athosian friends to take in a couple of Ellie's tops and dresses so that they didn't hang so much on her, therefore making her appear more back to normal.

"Ellie…" Lyssa said again and the Doctor picked up her fork, sighing listlessly and Lyssa frowned.

"Maybe you should go and see Dr Keller again…I'm getting worried about you," she said and Ellie's eyes shot to hers and she put the fork down again.

"Lyssa…I'm not ill…I'm just so…so…" she trailed off, shaking her head and Lyssa touched her shoulder.

"So…?" she urged and Ellie sniffed.

"It sounds stupid…but I feel so lonely," she replied and Lyssa felt tears prick at her own eyes.

She knew what her friend meant…she missed Lorne.

"It isn't stupid Ellie, its called being separated from the man you love."

"I want him to hold me so badly Lyssa that some nights I can almost feel his arms around me in bed and then, the next morning when I wake up and remember…I cant stop crying…" Ellie swiped at her eyes as more tears began to fall.

"And I am so sick of crying now…" she added as Lyssa moved over and put her arms around her.

"You know what you need to do, don't you?" she asked and Ellie shook her head.

"No, what?"

"You need to stop being so nice and take back what is yours. You go out there and you get Lorne back," Lyssa said and Ellie sighed.

"But…I'm so scrawny now…what if Evan…", she trailed off as Lyssa reached for the plate of chocolate cake and she held it up in front of Ellie.

"You being scrawny has nothing to do with it…Lorne loves you…but if you feel that that is the problem….EAT!!"

Ellie had to smile…and then finally took a mouthful of the cake.

OoOoOoO

A week later and Ellie had been passed for off-world duty by her not-so-willing teachers in self-defence.

She had also managed to gain a few pounds thanks to Lyssa's strict 'diet' plan of everything fattening from each evenings' dinner menus, plus a piece of chocolate cake at least once every two days.

It was at this point that the inevitable came and an off-world trip was called for that involved both Lorne and Reece's teams.

As the two teams boarded their jumpers, Major Reece turned to Ellie and said,

"You looking forward to getting back out there Doc?"

"Please, I thought we agreed you'd call me Ellie…and yes, I am thanks," Ellie replied, unable to stop herself from thinking that she wished she were over in the other jumper.

Not that there was anything wrong with her new team. Major Reece was nice, as was Lieutenant Tyler and today they had the pleasure of Ronon as their stand in tracker/fourth member.

Once they were all ready, they were given the all clear from Chuck and then they set off, Reece guiding their jumper through the gate behind Lorne's.

They materialized on the planet that Lorne's team had been trading with a few weeks ago. Hope and McKay had had their part of the deal, having been given what meagre knowledge the people had on a piece of Wraith equipment that the two Doctors couldn't get to work, but now could, and so it was payback time.

The two teams were to help re-build two huge halls that had been destroyed by fire a couple of months ago.

"Something tells me we're getting the bum end of the deal here," Lorne muttered to Hope as she gathered her things together in the back of their jumper and she scowled at him.

"Don't be like that Evan, they did help Rodney and I out," she said and he sighed and looked out of the back of the now open jumper to see Ellie and Reece walking out of their jumper together.

Ellie looked a little better in herself and Lorne noticed that she had had her hair cut a little, which seemed to have restored it to its former glory and it now shone in the sunlight as it always had.

Hope followed his line of vision when she realised that he had gone quiet and she ignored the twinge of unhappiness in her stomach and quickly dropped a kiss on his cheek, forcing his eyes off of Ellie and onto her.

"Come on…this could be fun," she said, forcing herself to sound bright and breezy before heading out of the jumper to join the others.

Lorne groaned inwardly and followed, closing up the jumper before also joining everyone.

They had landed the jumpers in a small clearing just to the left of the village and now began to make their way toward it, the sounds of building work getting ever nearer.

As they entered the village, the man in charge, Jonas, approached them and smiled happily at them.

"Major Lorne, Dr Stewart, it is so good to see you again…are you ready to help with the reconstruction of our beloved halls?" he asked and Lorne groaned inwardly again as Hope said,

"Well, fair's fair Jonas and your people helped us…so here we are."

Jonas nodded, then laughed as he took in the less than enthusiastic faces around Hope.

"Come…I will assign you your tasks for the day," he said, turning back toward the organised chaos and the teams followed.

oooo

Later, everyone was granted a short break and the villagers began to gather around a stone well some distance away, leaving the two teams stood over by the half reconstructed buildings and Major Reece raised an eyebrow as the villagers all knelt.

"What are they doing?" he asked, taking a bite from an apple he had been given and Lorne replied,

"They like to give thanks for the water."

"Ahhh…" he nodded, then looked up as he heard something.

"You hear that?" he asked and Lorne nodded, his eyes going to Ellie's as old memories threatened to overwhelm him and he said,

"Darts…"

Her face paled but she said nothing and Lorne dragged his eyes from hers and shouted over to the villagers,

"Everyone get inside….NOW!!!"

But it was too late and as the two teams watched on in horror, the culling beams came down.

"We have to help them!" Hope cried but Lorne shook his head.

"There's nothing we can do. Fall back to the jumpers…" he replied and everyone took off at a run.

Darts flew overhead and Ronon called out,

"Do you think they've seen the jumpers?"

"More than likely," Lorne replied.

They entered the clearing and came face to face with six Wraith guards and two nasty looking Wraith in the customary long black coats.

As her colleagues began to fire upon the Wraith, dodging return fire, Ellie seemed to freeze.

As one of the Wraith approached her she felt herself fumbling for her gun but her fingers wouldn't seem to close around it.

She seemed mesmerized by the Wraith's eyes, but she knew that it was the fear of being taken again that had her rooted to the spot.

She wouldn't let that happen again though, she now had Kyle to think of…and she wouldn't let Lorne be right about their son being without his mother, not from her first off-world mission at any rate.

Quickly she managed to get a tight grip on her hand gun and raised it, firing off almost point blank hits into the Wraith's chest. They set him back slightly but then he came at her again.

That was when Lorne turned and saw her and he aimed his P-90 and hit the Wraith with everything he had.

As it fell, Ellie's eyes met his for a moment, just before Ronon grabbed her arm and propelled her toward their jumper.

Lorne also turned and went to Hope.

"You alright?" he asked as more darts flew overhead.

"Yeah," she muttered, having seen Lorne take out the Wraith that had been going for Ellie.

She knew that he would have done the same for any one of them, but it had seemed to mean more because it was Ellie.

Pushing the thought aside she, Franks and Lyssa ran into their jumper behind Lorne and she readied herself for the journey back to Atlantis.

Lorne powered the jumper up, but as he went to take off they came under attack from one of the darts, the front of the jumper taking the brunt of the hit.

Sparks flew from the console and Lorne jumped back, yowling as he got a shock.

"Evan!" Hope cried as the jumper lost power.

"I'm alright," he said, rubbing his tingling fingers as he looked to Franks, who was pressing the console controls but receiving no responses.

"It's fried Sir," he said needlessly.

"Can you fix it?", Lorne asked, turning to Hope and she bit her lip and looked at the console.

She nodded and moved forward.

'How hard could this be?' she thought, pulling off the panelling underneath the console.

McKay and Zelenka had taught her the basics of the puddle jumper schematics and she had observed them repairing various jumper problems many times.

Now it was her turn…

oo

In Reece's now cloaked jumper, Ellie came to stand in between him and Tyler.

"What's going on?" she asked, "Why aren't they taking off?"

Reece frowned and pressed his ear-piece.

"Major Lorne…what's going on down there?" he asked.

"Our jumper took a hit, the console has been damaged. Hope is looking at it now, can you cover us?"

"No problem," Reece replied, manoeuvring into position to fire upon the returning dart.

"Darts are armed with a pair of forward-firing energy weapons, capable of destroying a puddle jumper with a direct hit," Ellie said, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

"They're like sitting ducks down there."

"I got 'em covered, don't worry," Reece said and Ellie looked at him, wondering what Hope was doing…she should be making progress by now. Reece could only cover them against so many darts and if more were to come…

oo

Lyssa and Franks exchanged a worried glance as Hope cursed for what seemed like the hundredth time and Lorne folded his arms across his chest in an agitated fashion.

"How's it coming?" he asked but Hope didn't so much as glance at him.

"Hope?" he pushed and she turned to face him, a panicked expression upon her face.

"I…" she began but paused as they heard Reece's jumper opening fire on a dart somewhere overhead.

Just then Reece's voice came over their ear-pieces.

"How much longer Major…the darts are coming thick and fast now that they've sussed out that someone is protecting you?"

"Hope?" Lorne asked again and she sat back on her haunches, her face telling him everything he needed to know and he pressed his ear piece.

"We need Ellie down here," he said.

oo

In the other jumper, Reece turned to Ellie,

"We gotta get you down there," he said and she frowned, wondering what Hope was struggling with.

Reece managed to bring down another dart before he took their jumper to ground level again.

Lorne opened up his back door in readiness and watched out for any Wraith that might be lurking on foot as Reece's jumpers' back door began to open and Ellie jumped quickly out, approaching Lorne's jumper side on.

As soon as she had alighted, Reece took off to provide cover again.

Ellie tried not to look at Lorne as he took her hand to pull her up onto the ramp, but she couldn't help it and their eyes clashed.

Pushing aside the way her heart leapt at his touch, she moved inside, not missing the relieved looks that Lyssa and Franks threw her way.

She approached Hope who moved to one side to let her at the console.

"What damage is there?" Ellie asked, looking at Hope who looked highly embarrassed.

"I…I'm sorry…I'm not sure…" she said, wondering why she had had to choose this moment to make a complete idiot of herself.

Ellie looked back at the compartment under the console and got onto her knees before it.

She quickly assessed what the problem was and re-routed the power.

As she worked, Hope moved toward a very pissed off looking Lorne and whispered,

"Evan, I'm sorry…I thought…" but she trailed off as he glared at her.

"If we'd have been alone here we'd have been screwed. Hope, I thought you knew what to do in a situation like this…if you don't then we need to re-assess things."

Franks and Lyssa exchanged another look just as Ellie, who had also heard what Lorne had said to Hope, turned and said,

"I've re-routed the power from the weapons, I need you to try powering up now."

Immediately, Lorne and Franks moved forward and Ellie smiled with relief as the jumper came to life.

She tapped her ear-piece.

"Reece, we're good to go but we don't have weapons," she said and Reece's voice came back.

"No worries, we'll be right by you."

"That's good to hear Major," Lorne said as he got the jumper off the ground.

Franks made a whooping noise as they approached the gate and Lorne began to dial her up.

"Just like old times huh?" Franks said, grinning at Ellie who laughed.

"Yeah, something like," she replied, before moving to the back to sit with Lyssa and a very quiet Hope.

Lyssa looked as though she wanted to say something to Hope but wasn't sure how to and Ellie sighed.

She felt bad for the other woman.

"Hey," she said gently and Hope raised tear-filled eyes to her.

"Don't worry about it…these things happen. We all get days like this…"

Hope nodded but wasn't convinced.

Lorne was angry with her and that was not good given the current state of their relationship and she resented Ellie for not lapping it all up.

'Why cant the woman just gloat?' she thought angrily.

When they got back to Atlantis, Woolsey was waiting for them.

"Briefing in one hour," he said and Hope groaned, feeling sure that Lorne would have to bring up what had happened.

Before he could catch up to her though, she headed off to be alone for a little while.

OoOoOoO

Stepping out onto the East Pier, Radek immediately locked eyes on who he was looking for, "Hope?" Without turning around Hope smiled, "Hey Radek," she said quietly.

With a small sigh, Radek walked up to where she was sat and settled himself beside her, his legs hanging over the edge of the Pier. A comfortable silence fell between the two.

Chancing a look at Hope, Radek frowned when he saw her eyes were brimmed with unshed tears.

"You do know you can talk to me," he said and without looking at him, Hope nodded, her eyes fixed on the ocean.

"I will call Major Lorne," Radek said.

"No…!" exclaimed Hope, looking at him for the first time since he'd walked out.

"Please, I don't want to talk to him."

Radek nodded and settled back into his position beside her.

"Well then talk to me, you've never held back before," he said and Hope looked at her friend for a moment before she dropped her head and tried to hold back the sobs that threatened to erupt.

"I don't know what to do," she eventually said, "I don't want to feel like this. I'm losing him, I can feel it, and it's killing me."

No longer holding back the tears she looked up.

"I get that he and Ellie were together, Rodney's been kind enough to tell me many a time about how in love they were."

Radek frowned, shaking his head at Rodney's inability to keep quiet.

"And I know he doesn't love me like that, in fact, I really don't think he loves me at all."

"Hope, I have seen the way the Major looks at you, he does love you," tried Radek, letting out a sigh when Hope shook her head.

"Well, make sure next time he's around, you watch how he looks at 'her', he wants her not me…but I'm too scared to let him go. I don't wanna be without him," she cried, tears streaming her face as she shut her eyes and allowed Radek to pull her to him.

Radek muttered something in Czech as he gave her shoulders a comforting squeeze.

"What do you think I should do Radek?" Hope sniffed and he sighed.

"It's a hard one to call," he said eventually.

"Tell me about it," Hope muttered and Radek smiled into her hair.

He too knew just how much Ellie and Lorne had been in love…but he had also seen how Hope had rescued Lorne from sinking deeper into his grief when she had come to Atlantis and for that, she deserved a shot at the Major's heart.

"Just be yourself and I'm sure that Major Lorne will come to the right decision about everything," he said and Hope sighed.

"I hope you're right Radek…I love him so much."

'But does he love me?' she wondered.

End of Chapter 8