A/N: Hello? I didn't die after that last chapter... O.o It's a miracle. Anyway, here comes the next chapter - if you're not a fan of Sam/Jack, I'd suggest giving the last section of this chapter an incredibly wide berth (and a little bit of the first section, although that's just Sam saying she thinks Jack's involved with Ronon's disappearance). The past 7 chapters have been edited in accordance to a few dialogue punctuation errors. I've been full of ideas, recently, so my brain's a little hyped-up. I own nothing and hope you enjoy!


Natalia's eyes narrowed to a squint as she approached Daniel, Sam and Jack. Her fist had curled around the tablet stylus which was, somehow, still glued to her palm. Bulging red lines ran along the top of her hand. Jack brought his emotions into check and forced himself to appear almost as clueless as any other bystander. The piercing sound of heels grew in volume, halting directly in front of them. Her gaze penetrated their skin.

"Doctor Alexander," Teal'c spoke. He appeared beside the three with his usual neutral expression. For a moment, the IOA operative seemed to be absorbing his closed, formal manner.

"What's going on?" Her eyes flickered from one to another before they settled on one of the guards, who stood against the wall as he cradled his bruised limbs. He groaned and groggily acknowledged them.

"The Satedan... Dex... Ronon, that's his name," he explained to them. "He took a jumper and left through the gate. God knows how he did it. He's not got the gene, as far as I remember."

"That little piece of..." Natalia began, her lids dropping to create identical slits either side of her nose.

"Best to...not say anything that we're going to regret," Jack advised her. Glossed lips came to a stand-still and their owner seemed to reel herself in. "Meeting room, anyone? I don't know about you but I'd rather not have this discussion on a corridor next to the jumper bay."

Despite her raised eyebrow, which Jack could've sworn was automatic, Atlantis' leader gave her hand a small wave and stalked off in the direction of the nearest transporter. The group followed her with a limping guard trailing in their wake. As they piled into the small space, he rested on the wall beside Sam and received an exasperated look for his limp.

"What?" he asked the blonde. She simply rolled her eyes, shifting closer to the man on her other side.

"Making enemies already, Carter?" Jack jested, oblivious to the other occupants. When she didn't reply, he continued. "Look, about that talk we have before Ronon left. Why did you just walk away without us 'talking'?"

Daniel exchanged curious glances with Teal'c. The older man made a restricted shrugging motion to show his equal confusion, choosing to ignore Natalia's disapproving demeanour. There was something going on between her subordinates and she was clearly displeased at not being informed on the subject.

"I left because you weren't listening," Sam admitted and looked pointedly at him. "I can't talk to someone who's not listening."

"I was...thinking?" He presented his answer as a question, as if he wasn't sure that it was right. His companion scowled and shuffled away a little. "Look, if it's so important, tell me now. No?"

She established a deadpan stare at the opposite wall while their journey prolonged itself even more.

"No." Jack deflated, lines of fatigue becoming prominent. "Why, then?"

Sam inhaled deeply and then leaned over to him, placing her lips just beside his ear.

"Because," she paused as her breath tickled his earlobe, "I think you've got something to do with this. Ronon. Running away."

The greying male was about to reply when the doors of the transporter eased apart, and the guard trudged out - complete with the occasional hiss of pain. Sam drew away from him, towards the space where the injured man had just vacated. Jack grimaced and a twinge of regret found him. He quashed it in a stubborn bid to not look back upon his decision and regret it. The rest of the journey continued in relative silence, with only loose-ended discussions thrown back and forth between Daniel and Teal'c. At last, they arrived at their destination and piled out of the claustrophobic space. Natalia tapped her earpiece to contact Arthur - whose constant trailing around after her they'd only just become accustomed to.

"Call the others involved," she demanded. "And try to gather what's left of the senior staff. I want to see them in the meeting room. Now."


Steam rose from the wreck, billowing across John's face. He stirred and batted it away, as he launched into a coughing fit. His back was pressed against the floor of the jumper's rear section, so hard that he could feel its lines embossed on his back. His breaths came in clipped bursts to accompany the dampness creeping up his immobile arm. The other, which he'd used to clear the air, pressed against the ground in an endeavour to sit up.

"Argh!" John gritted his teeth and flopped back down. "Bad idea. Wait a minute... Ronon? Buddy?"

A period of ringing silence was the only reply he received - until a faint sound reached his ears.

"Here. All in one piece. I think," the Satedan croaked out. Then another response, a few seconds later. "My head might be bleeding."

"Might?" The black-haired Colonel frowned. "Look, hang on, I'm coming to get you. Still in your jumper?"

"Yeah," Ronon answered. "Take your time. It's not like I'm going anywhere."

John made another attempt at reaching a sitting position, this time succeeding (despite the sharp gasp of pain that followed). He glanced around.

Not in bad shape, he thought to himself. Several panels had burnt out, sparking every couple of seconds, and the rear hatch had imploded. Chunks that he deemed large enough to crush several of his limbs were scattered about. Ground swallowed the exposed end of the jumper so that earth spilled onto the cool interior. Snapping his eyes away from the spectacle, he rose to his feet and shuffled out of the vehicle. One hand gripped the frame from which the door hand been ripped - the skin covering it was pale. Gradually, he inventoried his wounds. Sticky crimson fluid trickled down the arm that hung limp by his side.

"One day I don't wear a jacket, I crash the jumper. Great move," he quipped. He shook it off and stumbled across the small distant to Ronon's jumper. The ship seemed to have fallen just the same way as his. A dead weight. With a snort, he noted that the door was not only in one piece but it was lying flat on the ground.

Oh, the irony.

"Sheppard, I don't care if we don't have all day. I don't have all day," Ronon called out and pulled his attention back to the body lying amongst the considerably damaged interior. He laid spread-eagle across the bottom of the wreckage with one leg weighed down by a sizeable piece of the electronics. John bit his lip.

"Keep still," he ordered, then proceeded to step over a weathered tablet. One thing was for sure - the scientist who'd been forced to part with it would never get it back. The scientist's loss in mind, he nudged it with the toe of his shoe and a mis-shaped triangular section of the screen vibrated, shattering into shards. "Well... We won't be using that."

Crouched down beside his companion, he reached out for the object covering his leg. His fingers began to close around it and-

"Damn it!" John exclaimed as he tumbled backwards. The nerves in his fingers fizzled for a moment before he scrambled about in search of a substitute for protective gloves. When he finally found something to cover his sensitive skin, he grasped the item and catapulted it out into the open. For this, he received a hiss and a glower from Ronon. His wounds were exposed to the cold air, a stinging sensation crawling up his leg. John attempt to ignore it and tried to hoist the man up by his shoulders. "Come on. If we stay here, we'll probably end up dead. And I don't like the idea of that."

"How do you know something out there won't kill us?" Ronon gestured to the environment around them. Unevenly-spaced trees surrounded them - they caught sight of one that had been sawn in half by John's jumper. The man in question snorted then continued to hobble along, and drag his comrade along beside him.

"I think we're probably going to kill it first," he replied, after some time. The Satedan coughed and gave a messy shrug.

"That's counting we find somewhere to stay. Because those jumpers aren't going to fly again." He watched John respond with a nod before falling silent. The pair trundled on through the mud and fine blades of grass, reaching a rather convenient shelter.

A cave, huh? John mused. Well, it'll have to do.


They'd been there barely five minutes - Ronon was relying heavily on the wall and John, a few inches closer to the mouth of the cave, was tearing strips off of his sleeves to bandage the gaping wounds.

"Here you go, buddy." He was about to hand them to Ronon when a low growl rose up from the darkness at the back of the cave. Their heads turned bit-by-bit until a pair of beady yellows eyes came into view. As light shone into the cave, John glimpsed the shine of claws. They scraped against the rock and moved towards them. As both became stock still, Ronon reached for his stunner. However, the moment one fingertip made contact with the trigger, the concealed beast pounced on him. It dug its claws into his already sore wounds, eliciting a sharp cry from his throat. John jumped into action. Until he realised that, while Ronon had kept his stunner in his belt, he'd brought no weapons.

You idiot, he scolded himself. Didn't think you'd just fly in and get her, did you?!

His own punishment aside, hands hunted for something to use - a rock, a poisonous animal. Anything that could be a weapon. Then, as if sensing his thoughts, an object 'tapped' him on the leg. Or, rather, it thumped into it as he retreated from creature. He spun around, took in the sight and glanced over his shoulder.

Decision made, he thought. A streak of courage, which was seldom logical, made an appearance. It urged him to seize the object and took control of his hands as he hurled it at the animal. A distressed cry unfurled from its throat and it fled, bounding off into the distant with blood trickling down its fur. John gasped in air and meandered over to Ronon, t-shirt material in hand. The alien groaned - he let his head loll back against the curved wall.

"No, not going to happen! Okay? Stay awake." John knelt down beside him. With an unfamiliar sense of care, he started to wrap the leg wound. Blood specks had already appeared on the fabric but he ignored them - at least the wound was going to be covered. As he went about it dutifully, he looked up Ronon. Scratches and oddly-shaped marks marred his face, although it wasn't the main concern 'John the Doctor' had. It was the way his top eyelids drift downwards, almost meeting their lower counterparts. "I said stay awake. Come on... Tell me about Atlantis. What happened after I left? Any gossip I missed?"

"IOA took over... Some crazy woman called Doctor Natalia Alexander and her chubby assistant. Infirmary's a mess, someone graffitied her room..." Ronon sucked in a rattling breath. "Team's suspended. Gone mad. You need to...come back."

"Come back? You know I can't," John informed him, completing his task and moving onto his own injuries. "I'm not leaving until I find her. Even if it takes forever."

"You miss her that much?"

"Yeah. I guess I do," he replied as he met his friend's gaze. He offered him a meagre smile before he finished up, and turned away to watch the sun climb away from the horizon.


Atlantis' meeting room buzzed with commotion, the din gathering as more and more people occupied the room. Jennifer Keller had been roped in by a group of guards to tend to his medical needs while his presence was required there. The guard whose arm she was stitching up yelped and howled, as if the doctor was driving her needle into his skull. She rolled her eyes and dug her fingernail into the skin unapologetically.

"Quiet!" Natalia snapped. She stood haughtily at the far side of the room and waited for the silence to settle over the crowd. "Thank you. Now, could someone please explain exactly what happened? One at a time..."

"Dex took a jumper and went through the Stargate - after Sheppard," Arthur told her, emerging from the crowd to approach her. At that, the two witnesses scowled - Jack, who'd been lucky enough to claim a seat, simply averted his gaze.

"Well then," she vocalised, "I suppose now is a good time to tell you all of my plan."

"Your plan?" Sam queried as she tilted forward in her seat. An icy grin possessed the other woman's lips.

"Yes, my plan," she repeated with a bewitched air about her. "That is, the one that involves making this expedition human-only."

Cries of uproar drowned out any further words. Incensed soldiers and irked scientists began to yell insults about cruelty. The room's temperature rose a few degrees while rebellious individuals pressed against the crowd in a competition to claw the leader's eyes out first - Arthur had shrunk back into the corner, eyes flitting from one threatening face to another.

"There's nothing you can do!" Natalia proclaimed.

"It wouldn't even be happening if Sheppard and Ronon were here! Hell, if you let us find them, you wouldn't even be here!" A red-faced female soldier stepped up onto the table, hands firmly on her hips.

"You've been told before, Lieutenant, we can't and won't try to find them."

"Stop being ridiculous, you know where they went," Jack groused. Natalia zeroed in on him in an accusatory sulk. "What?"

"Is there something you'd like to share with us, O'Neill?" she questioned him. He swallowed hard and stared at Sam, who mouthed 'Jack'. It was a question. He turned away; Jack didn't want more questions.

"I do, actually." He squared his shoulders, faced his opponent and proceeded unflinchingly. "I know where they are. You know why that is?"

There was a pause, an awful lot of lip-biting and fist-clenching.

"Because I helped him escape."

Instead of a fresh lapse of ruckus, quiet suffocated them. No one uttered a sound except for hushed exchanges at the back of the crowd. Daniel, Teal'c and Teyla observed the scene from a position close to the doors.

"Psst," he uttered in his colleagues' direction. "Listen, guys, you don't have to leave. If she thinks she can take us on, she's wrong. The city won't abandon the people it knows - and if they happen to be 'aliens', then she'll just have to deal with it."


"Jack!" Sam called out, rushing after his retreating figure. She panted and began to slow down. "Wait."

"What?" the General asked as she skidded to a halt before him. Her hair was in a tangle and a flush had crept into her cheeks.

"Sorry I didn't say anything in the meeting. I just need to ask you something... In private," she imparted. Jack surveyed the area, walked over to a door and waved an arm in its direction. With a quick nod, she entered. "Thanks. Nice room."

A suitcase was lying at the bottom of the bed as though it had barely been touched (if you didn't include the half-folded boxers that hung out of it). The bed covers were wrinkled yet set in place, and the floor was clean - bar the occasional crumb or wrapper. She made a minute noise of approval.

Better than I imagined, she inwardly narrated. Jack had followed her inside; the door slid shut and he seemed to be waiting for her to speak.

"It took me a while to catch up with you, getting out of the room was difficult. Anyway..." Moments previously, she'd been so sure of herself. She knew exactly what she was going to say to him. Until all her plans had scattered and ran for the hills. She focused her wide eyes on him, formulating a reply hurriedly.

"Carter, just spit it out," he urged. The blonde exhaled.

"I said I suspected you but I just wanted to...check. I don't know," she paused and knotted one hand in her hair, "I just want to know why... Argh, I sound so cliché!"

"Stop, just hold on." He placed both hands on her shoulders to still her movements. "First of all, you're not talking in clichés. It's not like you. Just you saying that makes you sound 'not like you'. And, as for why, it's kind of complicated."

"Complicated? Jack, just tell me," Sam demanded, curiosity emboldening her. He squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to will away the little voices in his head that told him 'she'll hate you for this'. After a few seconds, he drew himself out of the hopeful stupor.

"I did it because I understand him. Sometimes, craziness has an amazing clear-up rate for problems. But he needs someone to stop him beaming himself into space." Jack wandered over to couch, flopping down onto the seat with his head in his hands. "I did it because I just thought I'd help with someone else's 'happily ever after' - definitely doesn't look like there's one in my future..."

A hand tentatively reached out for his shoulder and soft fingers pressed into the fabric. Warm breath stroked his skin. However, he remained in his tight position.

"And why don't you have one?" The hum of her voice vibrated from her to him and sent warm, pleasant shudders down his spine.

"Because you made it pretty clear that we don't have a chance in hell. And don't say produce some random excuse that involves the regs," he grunted.

"I won't lie, you hit the nail on the head," Sam conceded. "It's mad. We could lose everything. At the worst, we could spoil this. Our friendship. I just wish there was a way we could find out first."

"Kiss me."

"What?" She broke contact, inclining her body in the opposite direction. Her mouth hung slightly open. Then he repeated the sentence, which meant... "I'm not imagining it."

"You'll have to speak louder, my hearing's going. Look, just try it. If it goes wrong, we can just forget."

I don't know if I can, she mused. Then she took another look at the man who was offering his love - the unconditional, no-strings-attached type - to her. And so the decision was made. She scooted closer to him. Scents filled her nostrils. Lips hovered in her personal space. One hand came up to entwine its fingers with hers. Then she took the final leap and allowed her lips to caress his.

But, as soon as it had come, it blinked out of existence. They drew apart with hands still intertwined. Jack tightened his finger around hers, forcing her to look up at him.

"Sam?" he enquired as a jittery hope shone through to the surface.

"I'd rather not... I want to... Can we just sit here for a minute? Together?" She tried a feeble smile on for size. Deflating, Jack nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. Despair and disappointment battled to seep into his tone, although he struck back. Again. And again. So he let her burrow into his side and embrace him - he returned the favour in the form of resting his head on hers, before drowning in his own train of thought. Now he knew what a bittersweet victory tasted like.


A/N: I have two apologies for you, now. I just wanted to stuff those several thousand words in there first. XD This is the longest chapter I've written in this fic - I wrote a longer one in 'A Science Of Our Own', it was 4,000+ words. This was only 3,816. So, apologies to:

Sparky Fans - there will be Sparky. I swear. In fact, just wait until the plot reveal I have lined up. :D

All readers - this chapter's so late. O.o I have so many things to beta and several writing websites to manage (amongst other) - this, FictionPress, Movellas and Wattpad. But I can promise one thing. I won't abandon this story.

Anyway, that said, I have another announcement before the recap. I am seeing whether I'll get Amazon KDP - Kindle Direct Publishing. If I do, I'll most likely stick it into a future A/N. Because I'll be too happy to resist. I won't be able to publish fanfiction but I'll definitely be producing fiction. If I can't do it now, I will in several years time. And now I have the recap:

Natalia arrives on the scene and Jack suggests they go to the meeting room to continue the conversation. She agrees and calls all other staff - on the way, Sam accuses him of helping Ronon.

John wakes up after the crash, finds Ronon and leaves the jumper behind.

Shortly after, they're attacked by an unknown creature and Sheppard's forced to fight it off. As he tends to Ronon's wounds, the Satedan relays the knowledge of Atlantis' situation to him.

Back in the meeting room, arguments take place and Natalia reveals her intentions of banishing all aliens. Jack is revealed to be Ronon's partner in crime.

Sam catches Jack after the meeting and asks to talk. He explains that he helped John because he knows he won't get his 'happily ever after'. A kiss and a hug and the chapter ends there.

Sorry for the long A/N, thanks for reading! :)