AN: Okay, so this chapter was basically just an excuse for Shep to make out with Teyla. LOL I can't help it - the looks he gave her on the show...guh! If that had only been me, I'd have been all over that!
Anywho, enjoy! And I promise, the next chapter will be where you find out what's been happening - at least for the most part. There's still a few mysteries to work out in the next few chapters.
Lost and Found
Chapter 8
Sheppard stood outside Teyla's door, rearranging his cowlicks for the tenth time and hoping that they were at least partly behaving themselves, as he had no mirror to make sure. He was supposed to pick her up for a sparring lesson, purely a practice session to work on his tendency to drop his left arm as he struck. The skin of that arm was already bruised from similar sessions, but he refused to give up until he got it right. He couldn't risk such a hole in his defenses the next time they came into contact with the Wraith.
Or anyone else, for that matter.
The door slid open, and his heart caught in his throat. Teyla stood before him, dressed in her usual flowing skirts and fitted top, but the sultry smile she gave him nearly set him on fire.
"John," she purred, as he took a step forward, "I've been waiting for you."
Clearing his throat, he tried a boyish grin. "Yeah, I had a couple things to finish up first." The door closed behind him and then locked, which puzzled him as he had not given the mental command for the lock. When she continued to stare at him, her eyes wide and dangerously dark, he said, "You, uh, ready to go practice?"
She took a step toward him, laid her hand in the middle of his chest. Now that she was so close, he could see the rapid pulse in her neck, and when she shifted slightly to brush the back of her hand against his cheek he inhaled her sweet perfume, warm and softly floral like a summer meadow. Sheppard closed his eyes, willing himself to pull back from the edge he felt himself slipping toward.
"Perhaps we should just stay here," he heard her say then, and he allowed himself to open his eyes and look at her.
"Teyla..." he began, shaking his head. "I...we..."
"Shh," she whispered, putting her fingers against his mouth. "We have kept away from each other too long."
With that, she stood up on her toes and captured his lips with her own. He considered pulling away, but her lips were just so soft and warm, he felt his control quickly slipping away. His hands came up to rest on her shoulder blades, holding her against himself as his tongue swept across her bottom lip, then dipped into her mouth. He felt the rumble of a low moan in her chest, and then her hands clutched at the front of his t-shirt, wrapping tightly in the fabric as her kiss became harder, more desperate. The fire in his core blazed hotter at that, and his hands slid to her waist, pressing her lower half closer to his own. Closing his eyes again, he listened to their rushing breath, realizing that he had slipped straight down the cliff and was now plunging into dark, dangerous water, but he no longer cared. His breath grew short, his lungs feeling as if they would burst, so he drew his lips away from hers only to gasp in a breath and then trail them across her throat. As he reached the sensitive spot just under her ear, she gasped out his name and then began to tug the bottom of his shirt upward. He let her pull it completely off of him, then started pushing her backward, toward the bed.
Just before he was about to toss her onto the mattress and resume attacking her throat and shoulders, the sensation of falling once more washed over him, followed by a blast of insanely cold air. This time, however, his limbs continued to function fully, and he shook his head hard as if to clear it.
Teyla leaned forward to kiss him again, but he put his hands up to block her. Looking around the room, he asked, "Where's Torren?"
She frowned a little. "Torren?"
"Yeah, Torren. Your son? Where is he?"
She seemed confused. Her hands laid on his arms as she said, "John, I...it is only I, here."
Now certain something was very wrong, he pulled himself out of her grasp and began searching the rooms for the little toddler he had come to love almost as his own.
"Torren! Torren, Uncle John is here!" He called, but there was no patter of little feet running from a hiding spot, no giggles from the closet or the bathroom as there usually were.
His eyes wide with fear, John spun around on Teyla. "What did you do with him?"
Her gaze mirrored his. "I do not know what you are talking about. I have no child, John!"
"Stop playing games with me, Teyla!" he shouted.
Tears immediately sprung to her eyes. "I would not do such a thing!"
He opened his mouth to yell at her again, but his eye happened to catch something that made him stop.
The patch was gone.
Every other time he had come to her room, he had seen the Canadian flag patch from Rodney's jacket – mounted in a wooden frame – sitting on the left side of her dresser. It was a memento she had kept as a reminder of Torren's birth, as Rodney had helped her deliver the baby on board Michael's ship. He still remembered the proud look on the scientist's face as he handed her the patch, telling her that he'd got an extra just so she could have that one. Teyla had immediately found its home and set it up there, intending on adding a few other decorations to the frame when she had the time.
He blinked and looked again. No patch. Not even an empty place where it had previously been. It simply seemed to never have existed.
"Crap," Sheppard muttered.
The cold hit him like a tidal wave, his chest filling with ice crystals that felt sharp, stabbing at his heart and lungs. Sheppard folded in on himself, clutching at his bare chest, unable even to cry out. He sank to his knees in front of Teyla, sweat standing out on his face as he struggled to breathe. The familiar black of unconsciousness rushed toward him, blurring his sight of her legs, but each time he fought against it it crowded in harder, faster. The pain in his chest was overwhelming, worse even than a Wraith feeding.
Pushing as hard as he could against the blackness, he managed to draw in enough air to gasp, "Teyla, help."
The last thing he saw was her face before him as she bent down, her eyes full of worry as she tapped her earpiece and called for help.
Then, the darkness swallowed him up.
TBC...
