A/N: Yeah! I got this update done sooner than the last one, although it still was as soon as I would have liked. So sorry for the wait, and I hope that you enjoy!

By the way, I dedicate this chapter to both alliefreelancer and camy. You guys both inspired me so much, and are basically the reason why I haven't given up on this fic.

Now onto the story!

Previously:

They made their way down the steps to the gate room, and waited only a few seconds for the coordinates to lock and the wormhole to establish. They had sent a MALP through earlier and there was no signs of wraith activity on Atria, so they could through knowing that they weren't about to get shot down.

Ronon still chose to be cautious and went through the gate first with his gun raised before him. Aiden followed suit, and Rodney went a few seconds after him.

John looked over at Teyla. "Ladies first." When Teyla stepped through the gate John was only a few feet behind.

Chapter 10

It was a good thing that Teyla did not stop moving when she exited the stargate and stepped onto Atrian soil. John came through the gate directly behind her and would have hit her, had she remained stationary. Teyla saw both Aiden and Ronon with their guns raised eyes scanning their perimeter warily. It took a second for her to react, but Teyla picked up her gun too, from where it hung on the strap of her vest, and held it poised in front of her. She had a feeling that John was doing the same thing behind her.

A few seconds later Teyla heard the wormhole disengage, but she didn't bother to turn around and see it. She was still to busy scanning the perimeter for any signs of the wraith. It was rather ironic actually that the wraith had culled this planet only days ago, yet there was no sign of their presence. It appeared to Teyla like this was just another normal evening on Atria, but appearances were known to be deceiving.

Teyla took a few hesitant steps towards where Ronon and Aiden were standing ahead of her. "I do not see any signs of the wraith."

"Neither do I," said Ronon as he set his gun back to stun and holstered it.

Teyla noticed that Aiden released his P-90 and let it hang off of the strap on his vest. Rodney did not have his gun out, but he was looking around at the surrounding tree line frantically.

"Relax Rodney," came John's voice from behind Teyla. "The wraith are gone."

"Well," Rodney said. "One can never be too sure."

Teyla had to restrain herself from laughing when she saw Ronon and Aiden's reactions to Rodney comment. They both looked at each other and rolled their eyes simultaneously. Teyla was glad to see that they had become friends.

"What?" Rodney asked. "Why is everyone being so quiet? It's really disconcerting." All eyes turned to look at Rodney.

"Well it is," he said, sounding exasperated. "So where's this village anyways?" Rodney asked as he turned to face away the opposite way from the DHD. "This way right?" He started to head away from the Stargate.

Everyone else started to walk in the other direction, the correct way, leaving Rodney still walking away from them all by himself. He only noticed that he was on his own little excursion when John shouted at him that the village was in fact this way.

Teyla thought she could probably tell what John was thinking just by the look on his face. It was probably something along the lines of, and he's the smartest person in Atlantis?

Almost laughing out loud at the situation, Teyla realized how much she had missed this. Though unfortunately she did not have time to reminisce, they had a job to do, and Teyla wanted to be giving it her full attention.

Teyla followed behind Aiden as he entered into the forest. Ronon was a few steps ahead of him, and that left Rodney and John behind them. It was evening on Atria so the forest was dimly lit. Some sunlight filtered through the trees lighting the narrow walking trail that they were on, and giving it a sort of eerie glow.

Teyla shuddered involuntarily as she got a few feet further into the forest. All of the happiness that she had been feeling only moments before was being replaced by a sense of uneasiness as she walked further and further into the forest. There was so much riding on this mission, and the pressure was becoming overwhelming.

John watched as Teyla shuddered. He hoped that she was all right. He knew it would be tough for her to come back here, to the scene of the crime so to say. But Teyla was tough, more so now than ever before, and John knew that she would be fine.

John kept his eyes constantly scanning their surroundings, hoping to see…well, anything. Unfortunately though, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, not that he would now what ordinary was for Atria, but still. There werenormal evening sounds present, the ones associated with a forest. If John strained his hearing enough he could make out the sound of insects amongst the soft tread of his team's feet on the walking path.

After about fifteen minutes John noticed that the trees had begun to thin out quite drastically. He could now make out the shadowy outlines of buildings from the village. A few minutes more and they had left the cover of the trees and entered into the outskirts of the village.

By all accounts the village looked fine. If John didn't know any better he would just think that the people in the village had just all retired for the night. But if you looked closely you would notice that there were no lights on inside any of the buildings.

"All right," John said. "McKay, Ronon you guys head that way." He pointed towards to his left. "Teyla and Ford you're with me."

They split off into the two groups and began to search the area for any evidence of wraith attack. It wasn't long before Ford whispered quietly, "How come there's no people here?"

It was Teyla that answered. "I have reason to believe that the wraith took all of the people." Ford looked at her questioningly. "At least one hiveship jumped into orbit around the planet. When the wraith attacked there were many darts, many more than I have ever seen attack one planet before." Teyla paused. "I can only assume that their goal was to capture everyone that was here."

Ford nodded, probably not knowing what to say.

Ford, Teyla and John checked inside a few random buildings looking for any clues of the wraith, but they saw none. There were no signs of a fight anywhere, no dead bodies, nothing. John figured that Teyla must be right about the wraith wanting to take everyone alive.

"All right," John began. "Teyla you know where everything is around here. Any idea where there might be some signs of the wraith?"

John watched as Teyla shook her head and said, "No, I can think of no place where there would be any signs." She paused for a second to look around at her dim surroundings. "I hate to say this, but I do not think that we will find anything here."

"Damn it!" John cried out, causing Teyla to jump in surprise. "There has to be something." John knew that his voice sounded desperate, but he didn't care.

Teyla took a few hesitant steps towards John before calmly laying her hand on his arm. "I am sorry John, but I do not think that there is anything to be found here. Though we may look around some more just to be sure." The evident sympathy in her voice was too much.

John rapidly turned away from his two companions as tears began to well up in his eyes. Why can't we just find what we need?

Teyla thought that she might have felt her heart break as she noticed the tears in John's eyes immediately before he turned his back to her and Aiden. She wanted to comfort him, but she wasn't sure how, and she wasn't sure where things stood between the two of them. They had been on their way to figuring it out when the wraith attacked the kids and they really hadn't talked since. Teyla sighed.

Then she heard Ronon's voice come over the radio, "Sheppard?"

Teyla heard John inhale shakily before holding his hand up to the radio to press the talk button. "Sheppard here."

"Find anything?"

John paused a second before replying. "No, not yet. You?"

"Nah," said Ronon. "Just looks like everyone left in a hurry. We haven't seen any signs of the wraith. If Teyla hadn't have told us what happened you'd never even know that they were here."

John held down the button on his radio and replied. "Alright, we'll keep looking for a little while longer and if we still can't find anything we'll head back to Atlantis. Sheppard out."

Teyla thought that John did a good job of keeping his voice steady and neutral. No one would have noticed the slight tremor unless they were looking for it.

Just then John turned back around to face Teyla and Aiden again. Teyla met his eyes as he asked, "Any ideas?" despite the fact he had asked her a very similar question only moments before.Fortunately Teylaunderstood the desperation that was driving him.

"I am sorry, I do not. Though perhaps we could head in that direction," she said, indicating to her right. "That is where I first saw the flash in the sky from the ships," Teyla paused. "And my house also lies in that direction."

John sighed and nodded. "We'll stop by and you can pick up anything that you need. Lead the way."

Teyla then began to lead John and Aiden to where she had first sighted the wraith, even though she knew that realistically they would find nothing. Teyla didn't remember the exact spot but she knew that it was about halfway between Hanzila's house and hers.

When she stopped and began to look around she heard Aiden ask, "This is it?" She nodded as emotion clogged her throat. It wasn't as a result of not finding anything; it was more from the memories that were beginning to press down on her from that night. Teyla drew in a steady breath and tried to focus her concentration on the present. She felt a strong comforting presence at her back and a hand on her shoulder.

"You Ok?" John asked quietly as he bent his head so that it was positioned not far from her ear.

After drawing in another deep breath, Teyla nodded. John released her shoulder, and Teyla thought it might have been somewhat reluctantly.

They made their way to Teyla's house and Teyla entered first. It was too dark to see anything so Teyla turned on the light on her P-90. Holding the gun in front of her, Teyla swept it from side to side. It was dark, but nothing seemed any different than normal. It was fairly odd actually, considering how Teyla's entire life had been turned upside down numerous times over the last few days, and yet here nothing had changed.

Teyla stepped further into the house and John and Aiden followed behind her. She immediately went over to the table and lit the lamp that was on top. A soft glow now permeated the dreary darkness. Teyla turned off the light on her gun and let it hang once again from the strap on her vest.

Teyla began walking around, looking for anything that she may want to bring back with her. There was nothing in the kitchen so she headed into her bedroom. She grabbed a few clothes and shoved them into a bag. Other than that, there was nothing in here that she either needed or wanted.

When she left the tiny room she saw that John was waiting in the hallway for her with a concerned look on her face. She managed to give him a shaky smile, letting him know that she was all right.

When she entered into the twins' room, Teyla had to fight back a surge of mixed emotions. She quickly grabbed some clothes for them and added them to the ones that were already in her bag. It only took her a few moments: they hadn't had the most luxurious lifestyle on Atria.

When Teyla turned to leave the room she saw that once again John was waiting for her in the hallway. She tried to smile at him again as she passed.

Teyla extinguished the lamp on the table out of habit.John and her then met Aiden outside where he was waiting for them. Just at the same moment Ronon's voice came over the radio reporting that they had found nothing. John told him that they would meet up, back at the edge of the forest.

By the time they had reached the path that lead to the Stargate dusk had passed and it was completely dark. No one said anything as they began to make their way back to the gate. As the continued to walk Teyla felt the, now familiar, feeling of dread and despair return. The search had turned out useless.

They were only a few minutes away from reaching the gate when Ronon spotted something off to the side of the trail. Teyla felt a tug at her heart when she realized what it was. Ronon had found Abrianna's beloved rag doll.

John watched silently from just inside the infirmary room door as Teyla stood beside Abrianna's bed. He noticed that Teyla had placed the rag doll on the table beside the bed. Ronon had found it the day before on their way back to the gate on Atria. Teyla had said something about Abrianna taking it everywhere, and that she must have dropped it when they were running to the gate.

John waited a few more seconds before he went to stand by Teyla. He still felt a little awkward – like he was invading into Teyla's personal grief – yet he knew that he had a right to grieve too.

John stood close to Teyla, but not too close, as they watched the twins silently. Carson would be arriving in a few moments to administer the drug that would wake up the twins. John felt his stomach tie up in knots as he thought about it. They would find out for sure whether the twins were still possessed by the wraith. If they were…John shuddered involuntarily, knowing that the consequences would not be good.

John nearly jumped as he felt Teyla slide her hand into his. He looked at her questioningly, but she was still staring at the kids. He felt her give his hand a gentle squeeze. He briefly glanced down at their linked hands before squeezing her hand in return.

When Carson, Elizabeth, Ford, Ronon and McKay entered the infirmary, John nearly jumped again. He tried to withdraw his hand inconspicuously from Teyla's, but she tightened her grip leaving him unable to do so. Both Teyla and John stepped to the side of the beds as Carson approached.

He was holding a syringe in one hand. He carefully inserted it into Tagan's IV tube and empted it. Carson then pulled another identical syringe from the pocket of his coat and injected the contents of it into Abrianna's IV tube.

A/N: A horrible place to leave it I know, but I thought I'd do another one of my characteristic cliffies. (Though this one may not be as suspenseful as others.)

I'm sorry if this chapter did not meet the expectations that people had for it, but it was another sort of housekeeping chapter. Thankfully, I feel that the next one should be much better, (I have high expectations for it). There will be more action, more emotions, and hopefully some more unexpected plot twists.

Also, once again, I'm sorry for any possible spelling or grammatical errors. I have no beta and there are always a few that slip by unnoticed.

Please review, I love to read about what people thought of my story – good or bad. And also I will now by replying to reviews using the new reply feature, so keep a look out.