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Teyla awoke to the sounds of crackling fire and the laughter of her child.
"Torren," she murmured sleepily.
"Mama," the child called out and she opened her heavy eyelids to the sight of Aiden holding her son closely, both of them watching her intently.
She pushed herself off of the ground and looked around. None of the other men were present. It was only the three of them.
"Where have they gone?" she asked.
"Breakfast," Ford answered simply. "I was babysitting."
She smiled as she watched him bounce on the young man's lap, still playing with the sack of dirt.
"He's not that hard to take care of," Aiden told her, turning the boy so that he was facing him. "He's a lot like you, in fact. What was his name again?"
"Torren John," she responded softly with a pang in her heart as she remembered both of his namesakes.
"After Sheppard," he realized, not taking his eyes off the child.
She nodded.
Just then, her son reached up to Ford's eye patch and pulled it back.
Dismayed, she lurched towards him and pulled him away, scolding him gently.
Aiden quickly recovered, swiftly replacing the patch over the eye without the slightest sign of embarrassment.
"It's okay," he assured her. "Everyone gets curious."
She shot him an apologetic look as she released Torren to play with the toy a few feet away.
The men arrived soon after, hauling a few animal carcasses with them.
Teyla watched as they threw them on the fire and slow roasted them with care. She made sure that her child would not be in the way, though even if he was, she highly doubted it would have bothered them.
They all seemed to take a liking to him – as tough as they appeared – and they had all reassured her that they would make sure no more harm would come to him.
She worried, however, about that promise – as long as they remained on the planet where they had been held captive for who knew how long.
"Aiden," she called, picking up her son and going to sit next to him amidst the bustle of breakfast. "How long will we remain on this planet?"
He shrugged, "Until we need to leave."
Trying to hide her frustration, Teyla tried again. "I am worried about how long we stay on the very planet that has imprisoned us for so long."
Ford smiled as he took a bite of some meat that had just been prepared. "We're not on that planet anymore."
Shocked, she asked where they were.
"New Athos," he told her.
III
"Rise and shine, cupcake."
That was the first thing Rodney McKay heard that morning. Before he could angrily retort, he soon realized that the derogatory command was not directed at him.
He rolled over on his mat to see one of the guards shove Sheppard over with his boot, waking him up with a start.
The next few string of words from John's mouth made Rodney cringe. But the soldier just laughed and reached down to haul him up by his collar.
Angered by the mistreatment, the scientist tried to gather up the courage to tell the jarheads off, but couldn't find it in his empty gut.
Seeing Sheppard so terribly mistreated was not only out of the ordinary but just plain horrifying – especially by his own people.
Knowing the ex-colonel, however, McKay knew that no complaint about the roughness of his sentry would be made to Carter.
Mentally, he made a note to inform the commanding officer of this ridiculousness later.
As if on cue, Samantha came strolling towards him, a bundle of cloth tucked underneath her arm.
Before he could say a word, however, she handed that bundle to him. "These will be your clothes for the duration of the mission."
Rodney looked down at the horrid fabric – it was tattered and stained – not to mention it didn't look too comfortable. "What? Why?"
"We're here on an undercover mission, remember? When Ford's team comes back, we need to be sure not to catch their attention right away and scare them off."
"In case you've forgotten, he knows what we all look like –
"You're not going to be up in his face, McKay. Besides, seeing you here will be the last thing he'll expect. Now wear the clothes."
"This is ridiculous." He muttered.
He knew she was choosing not to hear him, so he settled at mumbling to himself. These "costumes" were bound to give him the most uncomfortable rash.
III
The Athosians were generous and kind enough to supply the meals for everyone, however strange and unique they were to the visitors, and they all dug in hungrily to the second one of the day. Athosians traditionally only ate twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening – to save time in the middle to hunt and complete tasks. This, of course, resulted in rather large meals that were long awaited.
Sheppard chewed his meal slowly, savoring each bite. The taste reminded him of Teyla – hell; this whole place reminded him of her. And yet, not one of the natives had even mentioned her or the others from that dreadful day. It pissed him off.
"I can't believe these savages don't have lunch," McKay grumbled as he sat across from John on the table. The two guards sitting on either side of the ex-colonel seemed surprised but didn't make any attempt to engage him in conversation, not that the scientist would comply anyway.
The fact that Rodney was making more and more obvious attempts at reestablishing the friendship they had once had both amused and irritated Sheppard. What was he going for? Was he trying to make him feel guilty for letting the relationship fade off into oblivion – save for that solitary chess meet-up every so often? That's all their friendship was anymore – a chess club.
So instead of humoring McKay's half-rhetoric remark, he simply stared at him until he noticed.
"What?" he asked defensively, trying not to look down at the eagerly awaited meal before him.
"What are you doing?"
"Eating, what are you doing?"
"Stop it, McKay, alright?" he pointed an eating utensil at the man. "I don't need any phony sympathy friendship – especially not from you."
"John, I'm not being phony –
"Then why –
"Hey guys."
The half-baked argument was immediately interrupted by the intrusion of the commanding officer.
"Sir," all four of them stood up, even before Sheppard could remember that he wasn't even required to anymore.
"Sit down," Carter motioned, her mouth already full.
They all complied and began to dig in. John, however, still picked.
"Not hungry?" the colonel asked, looking skeptically at the full plate of food before him.
His stomach gurgled. "Not really."
She nodded slowly, her expression read that she wasn't convinced but didn't pursue it further. That's one of the things Sheppard liked about Colonel Carter – she wasn't prying.
He looked down at his garb and the others' and tried to start a conversation to fill in the awkward silence. "So what's with the get up?"
"Disguise," she replied. "We're Athosians – for as long as need be."
"I can't believe Ford," he muttered, changing the subject. "If I had just made him come with us on that ship –
"This still would have happened," Carter interrupted. "John, you can't blame one decision on your part for the start of this entire thing. The only person at fault here is Ford himself."
"Even if we do get him, what are we going to do? He's so hopped up on that damn Wraith enzyme – there'll be no talking sense into him or any of his gang."
"That's if we're lucky," she replied with a frown as she began peeling an odd-looking piece of fruit from her plate. "I don't know if we'll even have time to talk to him. Our mission is to put a stop to him – however that may go down."
III
Teyla couldn't help but let a smile light her lips.
Home. She was home. But how could that have happened?
As if reading her mind, Aiden began explaining, "This device," he gestured to the armband on his upper right arm, "can let us jump to any planet within the solar system."
"You mean to say that they did not even take me far from my home planet?"
"Just a stone's throw away," he replied with a shrug.
"Why?" she wondered aloud to herself.
"Why did they want you two in the first place?"
She shook her head as she sat down next to him again. "I do not even know that. All I can remember before that place is being taken. There was a celebration here for a marriage when a Wraith ship attacked. It landed and the Wraith pillaged all of the villages. I had run towards the hut of Torren's father. I found him in his cradle but not his father. I picked him up and intended to run towards the Stargate. But I was stopped just outside of the hut by a Wraith – I recall that he didn't look like an ordinary Wraith – almost human in some aspects. He shot me with a stunner. That is the last I remember."
"Michael," Ford mumbled.
"What?" she turned to look at him. She had not heard that name in years, nor did she want to.
"The Wraith you tried to turn into a human – the one that got loose, caused hell, and had an unhealthy fascination for your kid," he gestured to the young boy on the ground whose attention was suddenly drawn towards the intense conversation.
"You know about him," she realized and leaned back.
"Yeah, I do," he shook his head. "I have half a mind to bet that he had something to do with taking Torren away from you."
Teyla couldn't believe she was so blind as to not have figured this before. But Michael was dead. Wasn't he?
