A/N Hope everyone's been having a lovely weekend!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favorited this story. You guys are the best and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!

Up head Alice started to see light, moving faster doors started opening as she passed. Hope started rising in her chest, she must've made it back to the main section. Pushing herself forward she saw the staircase that should take her back up to the main tower.

Alice struggled to make it up the first few stairs, she was panting hard and her head was swimming more than before. Her stomach clenched and she stopped as her stomach heaved again. She slumped down onto the railing, more tears starting falling down her face. She bit down on her lip to stop her screaming out in pain. Her body wanted to give up, and her vision was narrowing. Will power along could only keep her going so long, her body would fail her anytime now.

Gun fire made her jump. Her hand automatically drew down to her sidearm and she looked around. The noise seemed to be coming from above her, taking out her gun she grunted and continued fighting her way up the stairs with a renewed burst of energy.

Her heart was beating fast, her throat was dry but adrenaline was surging through her. She heard more shots being fired, they were closer now. She forced her foot up on to the final step.

"So! This is how it's gonna be, huh?! Just me?!" Alice couldn't believe she was thinking it, but Rodney's voice was actually music to her ears. She pushed off the railing and grabbed onto a crate to see Rodney holding his gun out on a Wraith soldier.

"Ok! That's just fine! You want some of this, huh?! Huh?!" Alice heard his gun click and a metal clang as something dropped to the floor. Raising her gun up to her face she prepared herself for another fight.

"I've got this" Alice almost jumped out of her skin as Teyla's voice sounded next to her.

Alice watched her carefully make her towards Rodney and take out the last Wraith. Feeling relieved she re-holstered her gun and collapsed onto the floor against the crate letting out a massive sigh.

"Doctor Mckay? Are you alright?" Teyla ran over to where Rodney had taken cover.

He stared at her with wide eyes, "oh thank god!" He stood up and that's when he saw Alice. She lifted her hand up to give him a small wave, clenching her jaw in pain at the same time. "Aly! We thought you were...they found your team dead and your vest shredded."

"You can't get rid of me that easy Rodney" she tried to give him a smile, but it must've ended up looking like a grimace.

Rodney faltered a bit, "... I thought I was gonna ..."

"I thought you were very brave." Teyla placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Rodney lent down to pick up a metal crate from the floor, "Really?!" Alice rubbed her eyes looking at the box. "Oh. I have a ZedP.M." He said following her gaze.

Alice rolled her eyes at the obviousness, Teyla looked at him expectantly "Yes."

"This may get the shields up." He stammered, looking between the box and the two of them.

Teyla gestured with her gun, "Lead the way."

Rodney peered down the hallway to the main power room, "Yeah, sure." He looked back at them, looking like he wanted to step backwards "...Uh, after you."

Alice sighed and reached her hand up to start pulling herself up, "ah, where do you think you're going?" Teyla placed her hand softly on Alice's shoulder gently pushing her back down.

"What does it look like?" Alice muttered back, attempting to fight against Teyla's hand.

"No, you're staying here and we're going to get you some help. We've got this, right Rodney?" Teyla raised her eyebrows.

"It's not like you can be much help." Teyla rolled her eyes, she looked about ready to smack him.

Alice cursed, she knew they were right. "Fine, go." She jerked her head, Teyla gently pressed her forehead to hers and then ran off with Rodney.

Alice watched them until they were completely out of her sight. The pain in her head crashed over her, she threw her hands up to grab it.

The room started spinning and she barely felt her head hit the ground as darkness engulfed her.

"Where is she?! They said she was dead!" Alice felt like she was floating in a dark pit. She could just barely make out some sounds around her.

"They found her vest ripped to shreds and her team were all killed, so I guess they just assumed..." the voices were disembodied and as Alice floated in the darkness she struggled to make out any connections as to what or who they were discussing.

"Is she going to be alright?" This voice was clearer, she recognised Evan. He sounded closer than the other voice, calmer and more collected too.

"She's not out of the woods just yet, she's suffered a rather nasty head injury." A light breeze blew over her, "honestly, I don't know how she managed to get as far as she did."

"She's a fighter." Alice smiled as she heard John's voice. "Any idea when she might wake up?"

"We've got her sedated at the moment to allow the swelling in her head to go down." She heard footsteps moving away from her.

"Hang in there Riles." Alice could almost see John, she wanted to say something or reach out and grab him, but nothing worked. Slowly her senses started blurring and she was swallowed up again.

Alice wrinkled her nose, the sharp smell of disinfectant was irritating her.

"Well, hello there." Alice opened her her slowly, blinded against the harsh light.

"Evan?" She croaked.

"Who else?" She could tell he had that silly grin on his face before she even opened her eyes.

"Well I definitely can't be dead then, even hell would be better than having to look at you." She cracked a smile.

He lent over her pretending to examine her head, "at least the Wraith didn't bash the sense of humour out of you." Alice limply tried to bash him away.

Her smile disappeared though as she became more aware of her surroundings. The infirmary was chaos, medics were everywhere running back and forth between beds and it looked like more people were being dragged in every other minute.

Alice quickly struggled to sit up, her eyes wide and panic flaring up in her chest. "Hey, hey calm down."

Evan tried to press her shoulders back down onto the bed. She gripped and twisted his hand back, "what's happened?"

"Aly..." Evan winced, Alice narrowed her eyes but let go of his hand. "We destroyed another hive, the other retreated and we got the shield up."

"But?" She knew it couldn't be that easy.

Evan dropped his head and ran his hand over the back of his neck, "more are on their way, Sheppard is on the Daedalus now hitting them with a pre-emptive strike."

Alice threw the blankets off the bed and started tugging at the needle in her hand. "Where do you think you're going missy?" Carson ran over and grabbed her wrist preventing her from pulling out the drip. Evan had hold of her other hand.

"This fight isn't over and I'll be damned if I'm stuck in here while people are dying." Alice struggled against the two of them.

"Listen, you are in no shape to be fighting. You suffered a rather nasty head injury, you're lucky it didn't kill you." Carson's tone was serious, his grip tightened on her. "We've already lost good people and i'm not letting another one walk off to her death."

Alice's eyes were burning, she could understand where he was coming from, but it went against everything in her nature to sit back and do nothing. "Carson, staying here means you might save my life. But this is so much bigger than just one life, and i won't let the city fall because I have a headache."

Evan chuckled, "I'll keep an eye on her doc, make sure she's only acting in a strictly consolatory position." Alice was surprised at Evan's support, she thought he'd be on Carson's side.

Carson looked between Evan and Alice, finally looking down and sighing. He released her wrist, "Let me give you one final check." He looked up and pointed at Evan, "if...if I'm satisfied, I'll be counting on you the second she shows any signs..."

Evan held his arms up in surrender, "no worries doc, I'll drag her back kicking and screaming if i have to." Alice rolled her eyes, but let Carson carry out a full examination on her. Seemingly satisfied, Carson started unclipping her from the medical machines.

Carson pulled the curtains around, allowing her to get changed into a spare medical uniform. She felt weird being in yellow rather than black, but she'd happily run around in her hospital gown if she had to.

"Right, let's go." Alice picked up her sidearm from the cabinet and followed Evan out the door.

Alice stumbled up the stairs, Evan offered his hand but Alice kept her head up and kept moving. Evan had caught Alice up to on everything that had happened while she'd been out on their journey from the Infirmary, she was shaking with rage at John's recklessness. She couldn't believe he'd taken on a suicide mission.

Alice shook her head, trying to calm herself as she approached Elizabeth, Rodney and Teyla. "Elizabeth."

"Captain?" Elizabeth looked confusedly between Evan and Alice.

"Carson discharged me." Alice explained, straightening up and clasping her hands behind her back. Elizabeth raised her eyebrow, but Evan nodded in confirmation.

"Well, the Daedalus is just updating us on their engagement with the Wraith." Elizabeth looked back down at the console Rodney was sat at. He waved shyly at Alice looking guilty. Teyla smiled slightly as Alice came over and stood next to them.

"The bottom line is, it didn't work." She could hear the frustration in Colonel Caldwell's voice.

Elizabeth looked around at the faces of those around her, "Well, at least you gave them something to think about."

Caldwell sighed, "We'll see. I doubt very much that that tactic will work again, and the Daedalus has sustained damage."

"We should make it home before they do." The sound of John's voice made a flurry of emotions rage through Alice; happiness, anger, guilt and confusion. She started trembling again.

"I hope so. We'll keep the porch light on for you." She smiled and then disconnected the comms. Stepping back she addressed the team, "OK, what are our options?"

Rodney pushed out his chair and lent back holding his hand out, "Well, let me see - we've got slow death, quick death, painful death, cold, lonely death." He counted them off on his fingers.

Elizabeth started to walk towards her office. Rodney and Teyla stood up to follow her, Alice moved to go as well but Evan put her hand on her shoulder holding her back. "I've got to go back to my post, right now I'm the highest ranking military officer." Alice could see the small hint of pride on his face as he said it.

"Well that's a terrifying thought..." she smirked, "go, honestly i'm fine. Don't worry." Really her head was still throbbing, but whatever Carson had given her was keeping it dull.

He nodded and lent over to kiss her cheek, "try to keep out of trouble." Alice opened her mouth to come back with a witty retort, but Evan's stern look made her shut it quickly.

He gave her a last look and headed off into the gateroom. Alice turned to go to Elizabeth's office, she noticed Elizabeth eyeing Ford nervously. She'd been too distracted to really even notice his presence in the room, which was odd given his loud nature. Maybe her head was affecting her more than she thought.

She walked through the office to see Elizabeth cautiously raising her hand, "Lieutenant, I ..."

At that moment Carson hurried through the door, "Lieutenant - what do you think you're doing here?" Alice hung in the doorway, keeping her distance from both Carson and Ford.

Ford chuckled, "I'm fine, Doc, really." He looked around at the others, "It's cool."

Carson took a step forward, "The hell you are. You should be back in bed."

Ford grinned, "I feel great. Just drop it." He turned his back on him.

Carson took another step and raised his voice, Alice had never seen him like this. "I will not just drop it. Not twenty minutes ago you were at death's door. Now I don't care how spry you're feeling - you need to be under medical supervision."

Ford angrily whipped his head at him, then slowly turned back to Elizabeth. "I'm good to go." His jaw was clenched, but his voice was determined.

Alice subtly moved so she was in the way pf the door, she didn't know what had happened but Ford was definitely acting weird. Elizabeth out on her authoritative tone "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Lieutenant, but Doctor ..."

Ford's eyes widened, that's when Alice noticed one of his eyes was completely dark. "I-I'm serious - just let me prove it. Just give me something to do."

Carson closed the gap between them and grabbed his arm, "I don't think so."

Alice had barely blinked but suddenly Ford had Carson by the throat and had slammed him into the wall. "Don't push me around!" He growled.

"Lieutenant!" Alice ran forward, stepping in between Ford and Carson to block his view of the Doctor. She put her arm up on Ford's chest. "Put. Him. Down." She enunciated each word.

He continued to glare, he was almost snarling now. "That's an order Lieutenant!" Alice pushed her palm hard into his chest.

Ford slowly lowered Carson to the ground and released his grip on his throat. Carson started gasping for air, Teyla ran over to support him. Alice kept her eyes on Ford. He'd seemed to snap out of his aggressive trance and was not staring at them in horror.

He looked at the hand that had grabbed Carson's throat. "I'm sorry, Doc. I don't know why I ..."

"You need to be under medical supervision." Carson managed to croak out, Alice winced she knew exactly how raw and painful his throat would be feeling right now.

"He's right, Lieutenant. We just wanna know why you're suddenly feeling this way." Elizabeth said softly, it was Elizabeth's ability to remain calm and empathise with people that made her so admirable in Alice's eyes. It was definitely a skill she needed to work on.

Ford still looked shocked at his actions. "OK. I'll go back."

Elizabeth nodded firmly, "Good. It's what you should do."

"Yes, ma'am." Alice lifted her palm off him, allowing Teyla to lead him away. Once his back was turned Elizabeth leaned into whisper something to Carson.

Alice stood awkwardly in the room, as Carson headed out with Teyla and Ford. "What can I do?" Elizabeth looked slightly taken aback.

"Um...are you sure you're well enough to be out of the infirmary?" Alice could tell after what just happened she wasn't in the most trusting mood.

"If i wasn't Carson would've dragged me back too." Alice joked, Elizabeth's face still stayed serious. Alice cleared her throat, "he's cleared me to work purely on a consultative basis. No heavy lifting."

Elizabeth nodded slowly, walking past Rodney and her. "I'm sure Rodney could do with your brain power." With that she left the room.

"So, put me to work Doc." Alice grinned as Rodney rolled his eyes, leading her out of the room.

"The Daedalus has just landed at the East Pier." One of the technicians announced. She had to stop herself from running down to the East Pier and throttling John. He was lucky she had such great impulse control.

Alice was running a series of tests on the shields, since they'd never been able to power them up before they had no idea what kind of damage they could take. Especially considering they were only running it on one ZPM, and as Rodney kept pointing out, it wasn't designed to operate with just one.

Alarms started blaring just as Elizabeth, Rodney, Caldwell and John. Alice would deal with John later, at the moment her mind was slightly distracted.

"They're getting into a formation." Alice watched the screen closely.

Rodney hurried over to a console. Waving at the technician sitting there, "Move, move!"

A deep rumble echoed above them, whilst everyone looked up nervously, Alice and Rodney were checking the shields status.

"The shield's holding under the bombardment but it's under incredible strain." Rodney tapped his screen.

"How long will it hold?" Elizabeth's voice was tight.

"Well, if they stop firing at it, it'll last almost indefinitely but ..." Rodney trailed off, Alice checked her calculations again.

"Are we talking months, weeks?" Elizabeth pressed, leaning towards Rodney.

Rodney opened and closed his mouth, Alice cleared her throat, "Days. At this rate the ZPM will be depleted within days."

Elizabeth looked back at Rodney, who just nodded silently in confirmation. The entire room was deadly silent. The echoes of the blasts were the only thing you could hear, Elizabeth and Caldwell retreated in her office with Rodney talking through their options. Alice resumed typing on her computer, John stayed hovering nearby. "Riles, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Alice bit her lip, considering it for a moment. Deciding she'd rather get it over now she stood up and followed him out onto the balcony. Although everyone knew they were out there, the stained glass would give them enough privacy.

Alice walked past him and out the door first, her anger temporarily evaporated as she looked up at the bombardment above them. "woah.." her back was to John as she heard the door slide shut behind them.

She took a deep breath and turned around, her eyes on fire. "Riles, I can't believe you're ali-" John was cut off as Alice shot forward and slapped him hard across the face.

"You tried to kill yourself?!" She accused him, her breath coming in short gasps.

"No!" John raised his hand up to rub his slightly red face in jaw dropped in shock. "I mean yes, but only because i thought it was the only way to protect the city." He was trying to sound reasonable, but Alice wasn't in the mood for it.

"How could you? There had to be another option!" Alice was furious, she clenched her fists and started trembling.

"There was no other option, I couldn't let everyone here die. You would have done exactly the same." He was right, she knew it. But she was too furious to let him win this one.

"I would have waited for Rodney to tell me there was no other way!" She hissed back, it was a lie. They both suffered from the same fatal flaw, they were impulsive and irrational when it came to their own lives.

John stepped towards her, "there was no other choice, and besides i thought..." his jaw clenched.

She stepped closer to him, even though she was shorter than him, her glare made up for any difference. "Besides what?!"

John held her gaze, "i thought you were...dead." He struggled to get the last word out and dropped his gaze to the floor.

"And?" she spat the words, but she felt her throat constrict at the same time, "why should that make any difference?"

John stared at her blankly, "Alice! How can you not get how much you mean to me!?"

Alice struggled with what to say, but when she stepped forward her eyes clear and determined "Even if i was dead" she ignored John's wince as she said it, "the last thing I would want is for you to be reckless with your life." She stared at him for a moment longer and then brushed past him walking back into the control room.

Rodney jumped out of her way as she stormed past him, he looked at her awkwardly then headed out onto the balcony.

Alice sat at the conference room table, tapping her fingers on the table.

Caldwell was delivering his report, Alice had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at how stiff and formal he was. It was weird how used she'd gotten to Atlantis' relaxed military code. "The Daedalus will be back in fighting form within the next twenty-four hours, but I think the next engagement's gonna have the same result."

Elizabeth clasped her hands together on the desk, "Even if we were able to destroy these ships this instant, more would be here in a few days, and even more a few days after that. From where I'm standing, I just don't see how we can win this."

Rodney swivelled his chair uncomfortably, "Well now we know how the Ancients must have felt."

Radek sat forward, leaning on the table "Atlantis is the only way to Earth. As long as they know we're here, they're just going to keep coming."

"As long as they know that we're here." John muttered out loud.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth eyes him curiously.

John straightened up, realising everyone was now looking at him, "Zelenka just said as long as they know that we're here, they'll keep coming."

Rodney rolled his eyes, "Yes, he said that."

John tapped his fingers twice on the table "Well, what if they thought we were gone?"

"Then there'd be no reason for them to stay." Teyla finished his thought.

John snapped his fingers at her "Exactly!"

"Exactly what?" Rodney crossed his arms over his chest.

"We disappear." John stated simply. Alice half rolled her eyes.

Caldwell looked confused, "Destroy the city, you mean?"

"No, we just make it look like we did."

"How?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.

Rodney clicks his fingers. Alice knew what he was about to suggest. "We cloak it."

Radek's face lit up, "Yes. Yes! The Puddle Jumpers are equipped with cloaking technology which renders them invisible to the naked eye, and to Wraith scans. If we just simply remove one of the cloak generators from the Puddle Jumper ..."

"Hang on a minute, it's not like pulling out a fluorescent lightbulb and replacing with an LED one, it wasn't made to do it." Alice eyed Rodney and Radek.

Rodney waved her off, "Well, I wouldn't say simply, but yes we should be able to." Rodney turned to the still confused Caldwell, "by interfacing a Jumper's stealth cloak generator with the city's shield, we should be able to render the city invisible."

"That's all well and good, but I think if the city were to suddenly disappear, they might be able to put one and one together." Caldwell countered.

Rodney smirked, "Which is why we fake a self-destruct. Have the Daedalus beam a nuke right above the city's shield, and then detonate it. While their sensors are blinded, we cloak the city; when the smoke clears ..."

Elizabeth smiled, "... nothing but ocean."

"What about hard radiation?" Caldwell still looked unconvinced.

"I should be able to calculate with reasonable accuracy how long to wait until we switch over to the cloak."

Radek turned his chair to Rodney, "But what about the displacement issue?"

"Well, it's coplanar emulation - that's the easy part!" Rodney argued back.

Alice rolled her eyes, "OK. But you're both forgetting the hard part..."

John looked accusingly at Rodney, "Hard part?"

Rodney shot Alice a glare, she just shrugged it was better to get it all out in the open. "Uh, the cloak for all intents and purposes will replace the shield, which means that we'll be completely unprotected once the cloak's activated." Rodney mumbled.

Alice raised her hand up to her head, a sharp pain drove through it. She inhaled sharply, John turned to glance at her but then turned back to the others.

She half listened to the rest of the conversation, then stood up to leave with Radek and Rodney.

John ran to catch up with them at the top of the stairs, "Riles, you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Go get Ford." She was still annoyed with him, but she couldn't afford to let him sideline her.

"Riles..."

Alice stepped slightly closer, "John. Really, go. He needs you more than I do." She stepped back and placed her hands behind her standing up straight. "Is that everything, sir?"

He pursed his lips, Alice could tell he was deciding whether to order her to the infirmary or not. "Just don't get yourself hurt okay?" Alice nodded and turn to catch up to Rodney and Radek.

Alice was hitting her datapad against the side of the Jumper, "come on. Work!"

Radek looked up at her cautiously, "what's the problem?"

Alice gave her datapad one last good bash, "hah! It worked..." she stared in amazement down at her screen, Radek stepped away nervously. She tapped her comms piece, "we're ready up here Rodney!"

Alice tapped her foot, they were waiting for the green light from Elizabeth. Normally, Alice would want to be in the control room for this, but Rodney needed her here watching the Jumper's power output. There was no point to this plan if they couldn't sustain the cloak.

Suddenly the temperature in the air dropped, and silence engulfed them. The bombardment had stopped, she hadn't realised how loud it had been at this point.

Alice was wringing her hands together, Radek looked pale "Attention all personnel: prepare for detonation flash."

Alice jumped around and slammed all her equipment shut, and waited.

A loud bang sounded above her, she tensed as she prepared for the shock wave. The city trembled under her feet. She counted to 10 and then began opening her laptops again.

She waited, holding her breath as she watched the power spike indicating Rodney had activated the cloak. She checked her systems. Everything was within its limits and no fluctuations. She took in a deep breath and smiled, this was going to work.

Radek smiled at her and gestured to the power connections outside the Jumper. Alice nodded and passed him the Ancient scanner next to her.

She turned back to her laptop, she heard a scuffle and a loud thump. She instinctively reached for her gun, cursing when she realised she didn't have one. Footsteps grew louder and Ford appeared at the ramp of the jumper his gun held out at her.

"Ford!" Alice stared down the barrel, "what are you doing?"

Ford's gaze was intense and focused, he looked like he did when he had Carson up against the wall in Elizabeth's office. Alice slowly raised her hands up, "Ford" she tried again quietly.

Ford lowered his gun slightly, "stay out of my way Aly." He picked his bag off the floor and ran off towards the next Jumper.

Alice ran out of the Jumper behind him, Radek's body was limp on the floor, she knelt down and pressed her fingers to his neck, relieved when she felt the thumping of his heart. "Control, Ford is taking a Jumper!"

She stepped forward attempting to follow Ford, but she was too late. She watched helplessly as Ford's jumper activated and the floor opened up to the gateroom. He caught her eye as he disappeared down, Alice heard the gate activate and then he was gone.

Footsteps sounded behind her, "we need a medical team In the Jumper bay." She didn't even look up to see who it was, but she didn't recognise their voice.

Alice collapsed onto the floor. Resting her arms on her knees. She didn't know what to feel at the moment; relief, anger, grief or pain.

John and a set of medics ran over to where she was, she quickly raised her hand up, "i'm fine, It's Radek who got taken down." The medics nodded and began to work on the Czech scientist.

John knelt down next to her, placing a hand on hers "come on, let's get you out of here." Alice stared into his face, his eyebrows were set into a deep frown. He didn't look like he was in the mood for a fight, so Alice just meekly nodded and allowed John to pull her up and lead her towards the infirmary.

Carson gave her an exasperated look when John led her into the infirmary, "I thought I said to take it easy?" Alice's head was pounding and normally she would have tried to come up with a witty retort, but she was just too exhausted. She felt her eyes getting heavy and her body swayed underneath her.

"Woah there." John's hands moved to her waist and tightly held her upright.

"Get her onto the bed over here." Alice felt her feet being swept off the ground, and her face crashed into John's warm chest. His scent filled her nostrils and she slowly breathed it in, allowing herself to drift off to sleep.