Authors Note: As I said on the update for my other story I'm really sorry for once again making everyone wait for an update. I have a good excuse though, I was in hospital over Christmas and New Year and they've only just let me out. I'm mostly stuck in bed for now though so hopefully I should be able to get a bit of writing done. Once again I'm very sorry.

Jammeke – Thank you so much for my review, reading it back just now has made me smile and I'm really glad you enjoy my stories. I was a little wary of doing the scene with the boys, I wasn't sure what people would think but I'm glad I decided to write it that way because I think it makes it more realistic, sometimes it is the children. Thanks for your review and for sticking with me.

Sparkly – I know that was a horrible last line, I nearly broke my own heart writing it, imagining the little girl, all innocent asking where he brother was. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter though and thanks for the review.

Jessy Luke – Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I'm sorry for the wait for this one, I hope it was worth it.

Belanna30 – I'm glad you're enjoying the story and yeah, I didn't think just because they were forced to work together that things would go smoothly, there's a lot of history between them now, things that can't just be ignored. Thanks for the review and sorry about the wait again.

Steph – I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and thanks for the review.

Kuroima – I know it was a sad ending but I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway, thanks for the review.

Chapter 11

There was no doubt about it; the investigation into the deaths of the four boys had been the worst thing John had ever had to do. Witnesses had been hurt and angry; grieving for lost loved ones, children who should never have been touched by something so horrible. John had to give his crew a lot of credit for holding it together so well on this one. The day had been spent on this investigation, Carson had managed to examine the bodies, take the necessary samples with help from Laura. Rodney and Marcus had scanned the area, taking their own samples and asking their own questions of the officers.

Elizabeth had struggled with the questioning this time; John had done most of it which had probably been just as well. It was easier to keep everyone calm if it was just him asking the questions, if too many voices came at the witnesses, too many questions, too much going on, they would have easily gotten wound up and snapped, shutting down and making an already difficult investigation that much harder. Dex and Teyla had stayed out of the way for the most part; just stood quietly in he back ground watching. John wasn't entirely sure why he always brought them along, he supposed if they were going to contribute to the efforts to stop the Shadows then they needed to observe and learn how the Alliance did things, that and he wasn't comfortable leaving them alone with his ship.

Now everyone was gathered together in the kitchen, Laura, Marcus, Rodney, Carson and Elizabeth were sitting around the table. John had sat himself on the kitchen counter and Ronon and Teyla were standing to the side as usual, there to hear what they needed to but trying to stay out of the way.

"I'm still waiting for a lot of the test results but I can tell you for certain that Tommy, Adam and Joey were killed with energy. With Tommy it was the usually method, surround them and hit them with enough energy to kill them. The other two boys had burns on their backs from some kind of impact, the energy seemed to be mostly concentrated there but there was enough of it that it spread through their bodies and killed them anyway," Carson explained, there was a lot of emotion in his voice but at the same time he seemed to be trying to detach himself from it. "The other boy, Damien, he was killed by chemicals not energy, delivered in the same way as the Shadows usually kill with energy, he was enveloped by it and the chemicals passed through his skin."

"I'm finding those same chemicals all over the scene," Rodney continued when Carson was finished. "There also seems to be a trail of it leading up to where the boys were killed, I can't be sure though, there were too many people for me to gather enough samples. Now that everything has quietened down, I'd like to go back and see how far this trail goes, it could be that the Shadows leave a trail everywhere they go."

"Alright, Laura and Marcus, take Rodney back to the site after dark, everyone should have gone home by then," John ordered, he'd heard every word that had been said, taken all of it on board but his mind was preoccupied by its own thoughts. "I think we need to be more careful as well. I think the Cloud plans its attacks before hand and if that's the case it means it's watching its victims."

"What makes you say that?" Marcus asked.

"There were dozens of people around, all of them in a panic, all of them vulnerable but the Shadow left them all alone. There were so many easy victims around it should have had a field day but it didn't, it killed the four boys and then left again. I think it knew what it wanted, planned how to get it and then disappeared again before anyone could really register what was happening. It chooses who it wants and goes after them, only them, I think the only reason it would do differently is if an outsider became a threat to it like I did when it attacked Elizabeth. It turned on me for a second but once I was no longer a problem it then focused on Elizabeth again, we know it can take out more than one person at once; it killed two of those boys today at the same time but it never does that. It attacks its intended victim and then disappears again."

"I'm immensely creeped out at the thought of that thing watching me," Laura stated with a shudder "Standing in the shadows where I can't see it, watching my every move."

"Just keep your eyes open, we're going looking for these things, there's a much higher probability that it'll see us and pick us as its next victims, especially if it starts to perceive us as a threat," John ordered receiving nods from around the table.

"You know, as much as that makes sense," Carson began hesitantly. "It also means there're more to these creatures than we thought there was. We just assumed they were mindlessly killing people but if they're actually picking out victims, planning how to get to them then there's a level of intelligence, of independent thinking that we never gave them credit for."

"Okay that's enough," Laura said abruptly. "You're all creeping me out, I'm gonna have nightmares if you keep going."

Elizabeth found John in the kitchen sitting at the table staring at the apple in his hand with a far away expression. She took the chair next to him without a word and pulled the apple from his hand putting it down on the table in front of him, bringing him out of whatever trance he'd put himself in. He looked tired, more tired that the rest of them and she knew their most recent investigation had taken its toll on him; it had take its toll on all of them. The whole crew was drained, both physically and emotionally, not just from the work but from the effort of holding it together on a case that by rights should make anyone fall apart.

"You should try to sleep," Elizabeth stated and he offered her a small smile, acknowledging the fact but not moving to do anything about it.

"So should you," he replied and she nodded her head.

"I've slept more than you, that means I get to bug you about it not the other way around," she told him."I know it's been a rough couple of days but we're no good to anyone exhausted."

"I know, you're right, I'll get some sleep soon," he said and she knew him well enough to know that he would sleep when he got so tired he passed out the second he hit the bed, from the look of him it wouldn't be long now anyway.

"I was thinking," Elizabeth began "Next time we get the chance, the crew could do with a break, just a day off so they don't have to spend every minute thinking about stuff like this."

"That's probably a good idea, it's just a case of getting the chance," he replied and she nodded her head. Chances for even just a comfortable nights sleep were few and far between, the crew were up most nights working on something and whenever things would start to slow down, something else would happen. A whole day away from the Shadows, the death and everything that came with it seemed to be asking for a lot but it was no more than they needed, no more than they'd earned.

John yawned, stretching his muscles tiredly and Elizabeth recognised it as the first sign of him being about to drop to sleep right where he was. She stood up and grabbed his hand pulling him out of the chair and it seemed he had neither the will not the strength to protest as she led him to their room. They changed in silence, as expected John was asleep within seconds of lying down and Elizabeth smiled as got into the bed next to him. Even in his sleep he put his arm around her pulling her tight against him before he settled down properly and she was able to follow him into sleep.

Another day, another attack, it seemed like they'd barely made it through the few days that had been taken up by the killing of the four boys and now they were off to the site of yet another attack. They were getting to this one quicker, it had happened not far from the ship and they'd gotten notification of it within minutes though details would have to wait for now. Rodney couldn't quite understand why the Shadow was staying here on this planet, so far the Shadows had attacked a few times and then been on their way again, this one seemed content to stay here and kill one civilian after another.

The car pulled up behind the large crowd that were already gathering, it had probably only been ten minutes, fifteen at the most. Laura, Marcus and Carson got out of the car straight away, Rodney more slowly; there was nothing he hated more about his job than examining these scenes, those left behind by the shadows, those that had been left by the cloud. The other car had stopped in front of them, John and Elizabeth were already stepping under the police tape that cordoned off the scene, Ronon and Teyla were right behind them.

The rest of the group hurried after them and Rodney cast an uneasy glance around, he'd been much more edgy since the make shift briefing the other day. The thought that the Shadows were watching them was not a pleasant one, his eyes had darted from one casted shadow to another ever since. The Shadow wouldn't be far away this time either, the attack was still fresh, even if the Shadow had made a run for it straight away it still wouldn't have gotten that far. He kept up with the others, ducking below the police tape when he reached it and entering the tent that had been put up around the body.

"Male, thirty three years old, married with two kids," one of the officers was already telling John glancing at the covered body a few feat away from him.

"Witnesses?" John questioned.

"Three, a couple that were passing by and a kid who was playing down the street saw the whole thing but once it all kicked off it drew a lot of attention, there's probably a dozen or so people that saw that thing at one point or another," the officer told him, it was the same officer who had told them who the last four victims had been and Rodney only just realised he didn't even know the man's name.

"You all know what to do," John said probably getting tired of giving the same orders over and over again. He got several nods in response and Rodney immediately got to work on the site, gathering soil and air samples to be analysed later. Every sample from every scene told him the same things but if just once there was something new, something he'd been missing before then all these samples, all the time and effort it took to analyse them all would be worth it.

There was a commotion near the opening of the tent and Rodney looked up as a man walked in, struggling and fighting his way passed the two officers. He looked more than angry, he looked like he was ready to kill but Rodney had seen enough aftermaths of these attacks by clouds and shadows to understand why the man was angry, it wasn't the first time he'd seen it and it wouldn't be the last.

"How could you let this keep happening?" he shouted once he saw John and Elizabeth, targets for him to vent his anger at, Alliance agents it seemed were good for that, it made him glad he was just a scientist, he was usually spared this. "All these people getting killed and you're doing nothing to stop it!"

"I assure you sir we're doing everything we can," John stated calmly though Rodney did notice him take a step forward placing himself in between Elizabeth and the angry new comer, an unconscious act to protect her. He was the same with Laura as well but maybe not quite to the same level, Laura noticed of course and she let him get away with it for the most part, Cadman was not a woman who needed protecting... most of the time.

"Then why are they still killing people, that thing just went right up to Clarke, killed him and left. If you were doing everything you could to stop that then it wouldn't keep getting away like that would it?" the man continued to shout at John spared a glance at the nearby officer, a question in his eyes.

"Daniel Myas, one of the witnesses," the officer answered the unspoken question and John nodded turning back to the angry witness.

"What did you see exactly?" he questioned and the man frowned for a moment, not ready to let go off his anger yet but thrown by the sudden change in the conversation.

"It came out of the shadows like it had been part of it, Clarke never stood a chance, never saw it coming until it was too late. It was all around him, I thought it was choking him and tried to get to him but there was this flash of light and it just let go. Clarke was already dead when I got to him and I had my wife call the police, the shadow disappeared back into the stadium," Myas explained angrily, he'd obviously known the victim.

"Stadium?" Elizabeth asked as she stepped forward.

"Across the street from here, the baseball stadium where the kids play, not much but the kids love it, I won't be letting mine go back there for a long time even with the big game coming up," the man told them and Rodney decided it was probably a good idea to keep the kids out of there for a while. It was then he caught onto the train of thought Elizabeth had no doubt already got a hold of and when she and John left the tent in a hurry he went after them, Ronon and Teyla right behind him.

There it was, he'd paid no attention to it on the way in since it didn't mean anything to him. It was small, only just big enough for the kids to play; there was some seating around the edges of the field, fencing around two sides and walls along the others. There were shadows cast all over it even during the daylight, a perfect place for a living shadow to hide for a while.

John turned to Elizabeth "Get the others."

"Yeah," she said with a nod and went back into the tent as John spoke to the officer.

"I want the body taking to the morgue immediately; no one touches until Carson has a chance to do his examination. Rodney requires samples from the scene, they need to be collected and sent to the ship," John ordered, clearly he was planning to have the whole crew in on the search that was about to take place. It made sense; the only people here who knew what they were up against were the crew of the Venture.

If Teyla was honest with herself than she could admit that she was just a little bit terrified. Agent Sheppard and Elizabeth seemed to be sure the Shadow was hiding here somewhere, that it had taken refuge here after the attack and now she was walking through a row of wooden benches trying to find it. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to see a shadow inside a shadow but she had a feeling if she got close enough to it she'd know it was there.

She looked behind her; Ronon was there, his eyes watching everything all at once as he too shimmied his way through the benches. McKay and Cadman were down on the field with several of the officers, Becket and Lorne were inside the small building that had been labelled changing rooms. John and Elizabeth were at the side of the field checking under the small shelter that the team would normal be sat around in when they weren't on the field. Elizabeth didn't seem to be as terrified as Teyla but the woman had already gone up against these things once, granted she hadn't come out of it very well but she at least knew what to expect.

There was a noise below her, in the shelter John and Elizabeth were in and she jumped over the bench, running toward the small chipped away wall that cut of the seating from the field. She looked down and saw Elizabeth and John backing out of the shelter, guns aimed in front of them. She ran for the gap in the wall, down the few stairs to the field, she could hear Ronon's footsteps behind her.

"It's up on the field," she heard Cadman say into her radio but she couldn't quite make out the response she got from Lorne. As John and Elizabeth continued to back away from the shelter slowly Teyla saw what they were trying to move away from, the Shadow.

It was exactly as Elizabeth had described it, a jagged shadow of a person moving through the air, not touching the ground but at the same time it seemed like it was walking as it followed the two Agents. Its eyes were nothing more than white slits in the blackness but they seemed to give off a cold, evil feel that only served to make Teyla more afraid of it. This had been there goal to find a shadow but now that they had actually done it she didn't know what she was supposed to do. The shadow stopped moving so abruptly that John and Elizabeth stopped as well, it looked at Elizabeth, studying her before it looked at Teyla, it was as though it could sense who the two women were.

There was a flash of light and then everything happened fast, the light had been aimed at Elizabeth but John pulled her to the ground and the bolt hit the field harmlessly. Laura pulled her gun and fired at the shadow which didn't even phase it, all the same it classed her as a threat and fired the same bolt of energy at her, it hit her just below the chest and the blonde agent fell to the floor unmoving.

Elizabeth was up on her feet then moving toward the shadow despite the shouted protest from John who hadn't gotten onto his feet fast enough to stop her. He made a move toward her but one of the officers grabbed his arm to keep him back. The shadow focused on Elizabeth then, her hand was held out to the shadow as though she was trying to warn it to stay back, a warning the shadow didn't understand. It moved toward her, shadowy arms enveloping her and Teyla ran forward out of instinct. There was light again, dim light but this time it was coming from Elizabeth not the shadow, Teyla grabbed her hand before the shadow could cover it and the light grew. The shadow pulled back with an ear piercing scream and seconds later it was hidden among the shadows again, gone from view.

Lorne and Carson arrived just as Elizabeth and Teyla collapsed, both women were still conscious but if Teyla had tried to get up she would have found herself back on the floor again pretty quick. She tried to take deep breaths to calm her breathing, could hear Elizabeth doing the same next to her as John dropped down by her side.

"Are you alright?" he asked her and she shook her head, a look of realisation coming across her face as her head came up, eyes scanning her surroundings frantically.

"Laura," she said and Teyla too looked up. The Agent was still on the floor, Becket and Lorne hovering over her as she continued to lay there unmoving, from where she was sitting, Teyla wasn't even sure the woman was breathing.

TBC