Steph – I know that was you on the Sparky Army account lol. I know that was kind of a mean cliff hanger wasn't it? Lol. Thanks for the review.
Suzotchka1 – Thanks for the review, I'm doing a lot better now and I have some time for my fanfiction.
Belanna30 – I'm glad it was worth the wait, I'm feeling better now so I should be able to get some writing done, thanks for the review.
Jessy Luke – Sorry about the evil cliff hanger, a little bit anyway lol, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and thanks for the review.
Jammeke – I really enjoyed writing the scene between John and Elizabeth; it was nice to just write a little sparky moment into it. The relationships between the characters have been interesting to write in this story as well and I think it's only going to get more interesting. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Sparkly – Thanks for the review, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one too.
Kuroima – Evil cliff hanger, I know, I'm a little bit sorry for it lol. Thanks for the review.
Chapter 12
The Venture had been closer than the local hospital, with help from the police who had cleared the way it had taken them only a few minutes to make it back to the ship. Agent Lorne carried a still unconscious Cadman into the infirmary, the rest of the crew all but running in his wake. Lorne had scarcely had time to put her down on the bed before Dr Beckett had started working on her. Elizabeth and Lorne helped him attach various monitors to the unconscious Agent, machines coming alive with beeps and lights. Quiet alarms began sounding immediately, one stat after another screaming that something was wrong. Teyla and the others stayed back, Sheppard and McKay watching the scene fearfully, Ronon was mostly just trying to stay out of the way. Teyla was watching everything, she might not get along with the Agent but for some reason she didn't want her to die either.
"Her blood pressure is dropping," Elizabeth stated, her voice was full of urgency and desperation. Lorne was attaching another monitor, this one clipping to the end of her finger and adding more noise to the loud cacophony of sound that already filled the room.
"Blood oxygen is too low," he announced watching the little red numbers on the screen continue to drop. "Way too low."
Beckett was giving orders; he had Lorne administer some medication and sent Elizabeth to get more as he inserted a canular into his wife's arm. Elizabeth returned with a see through bag full of a clear liquid, medication for the IV. She didn't even have time to hand it to Beckett before an alarm louder than all the others sounded. One of the monitors showed an erratic line, her heart beating too fast before it stopped completely leaving the line flat.
Lorne had the crash cart next to Beckett before the doctor had even finished shouting for it and Elizabeth was putting an oxygen mask over Cadman's nose and mouth. She stepped back when Carson shouted 'clear'. He held the panels to Cadman's chest, electricity passing into the agent making her body jolt up from the bed. A single peak appeared on the monitor before the line fell flat again. Beckett hit her with the defibrillator again only to get the same response as before.
"Come on Laura; don't do this to me," he said pleadingly, charging the panels again and trying for a third time. The response was once again the same and Teyla could feel the desperation coming from the Venture crew. Beckett hit her with the defibrillator for a fourth time and after a tense moment the flat line returned to its regular rhythm.
Beckett put the panels back on the crash cart with a sigh of relief before he went back to working on Laura. Elizabeth and Lorne were still helping him, Elizabeth was finally able to pick the IV bag up and hand it to Beckett, he started attaching it to the IV, instructing Lorne on how to attach the monitors to Laura's head. The Agent was putting the tiny wires on her forehead exactly where Beckett had told him to, moving the wires so they were away from Cadman's face.
"Radio me, if there's any change," Sheppard instructed Rodney and then left the infirmary, disappearing through the door with a backward glance at his unconscious colleague. Cadman's condition was slowly starting to stabilise and Teyla diverted her thoughts to what had just happened.
It had been the first time she'd even seen one of the Shadow Warriors; they'd been exactly as Elizabeth had described them but she hadn't quite been able to capture in words the terror they made you feel just by looking at them. It was the first time she'd come face to face with those things and this was the result. Cadman's condition was still touch and go, it had wrapped itself around Elizabeth, enveloped her like the cloud would have done. She didn't know what that light had been, how she and Elizabeth had been able to hurt the shadow and make it leave. They were terrifying creatures; she could admit to herself that they scared her, if she could go the rest of her life without seeing another one she would. As it was she knew that not only was she going to see them many more times she was actually going to go looking for them.
"Are you sure?" John questioned. The crew had gathered in the eating area, except for Laura who was still in pretty bad shape and Carson who was looking after her. It had been a day since Laura had been injured by the Shadow, her condition hadn't really improved and the worry the rest of the crew were feeling was starting to cause some friction.
"No, of course I'm not sure, it was just a discrepancy in the sensor readings, it could be the shadow or it could just be a glitch," Rodney replied touchily and John decided to let him get away with it, he was just worried about Laura, they all were. "I also can't be certain about the direction it was going in either, if I had to guess which I'm sure you're going to make me do, then I'd have to guess that it was heading into space."
"So the shadow's left," Marcus stated.
"Like I said, I can't be sure of that," Rodney told him.
"I understand that Rodney but at a best guess we'd have to say the Shadow has left the planet," Marcus replied his temper flaring slightly.
"The question is," John began cutting off any fighting before it could even start, they had enough to deal with without that. "Do we take our chances and leave or do we stay here and risk the Shadow getting too far away?"
"Even if we leave we have no way to know which way it went, we could go in the opposite direction and not find out about it for months," Rodney explained.
"We've made this decision before and I'd make the same one now, we leave," Marcus stated.
"I agree with Marcus," Elizabeth spoke up. "If we find out the Shadow is still here then we can come back, in the meantime we have other leads to follow up."
John looked to the two people standing to the back of the room, quietly watching everything that was going on, keeping their opinions to themselves. "What do you two think?"
Teyla and Dex both looked completely stunned to have been brought into the conversation; it took them a few seconds to recover enough to respond. "You're asking our opinions?" Teyla questioned incredulously.
"Yeah, we're asking their opinions?" Marcus asked with the same incredulity.
John threw his arms up in the air, surrendering to the ridiculously impossible situations they'd all been thrown into which only seemed to get more impossible everyday. "Why not?"
"I think we should leave," Ronon stated simply, Teyla nodded her agreement with him and the two of them fell silent again.
John thought for a moment, he agreed with them, he'd known his own answer before he'd asked for theirs but they were a crew and despite him somehow becoming the leader he should at least ask their opinions before making a big decision. "Then we leave," John told them. "Marcus contact the local police, let them know we think the Shadow might have left the planet but to keep their eyes open for it in case it hasn't. Tell them we're leaving in one hour."
Elizabeth left the infirmary, Laura's condition remained unchanged and she was really starting to fear for the Agent. Carson looked exhausted, he hadn't slept since Laura had been injured except for the occasional half an hour nap when he dozed off in the chair beside his wife's bed. She headed straight for her room, ignoring John who was sat on the bed trying to read through his book, the same one he'd been trying to get through when she'd first met him. She walked through to the bathroom coming to a stop in front of the sink and splashing cold water onto her face. It didn't have quite the effect she was hoping for, it all succeeded in bringing her half out of the hole she could feel herself sinking into.
She reached for a towel and dried her face, putting it back on the rail haphazardly as she looked at the mirror. Her reflection felt almost as though it belonged to someone else, she couldn't explain it but it felt foreign to her. She was too tired.
In the mirror she saw John walk in, he leaned against the metallic wall studying her for a second before his eyes met hers through their reflections. He had that look of concern, that subtle one that he always had when he found her on the bridge or in the alcove at the end of the corridor watching hyperspace and trying to get her thoughts in order. She couldn't hold his gaze; instead she looked down at the sink, gathering herself together.
She didn't even hear him move, she didn't know he had until she felt his chest touch her back and his hands on her arms. He slid them down toward her wrists and then back up again and Elizabeth couldn't quite understand how such a simple gesture could offer so much comfort, she hadn't even realised she needed it.
"Not your fault," he whispered, his lips almost touching her ear. She closed her eyes, both to soak up this feeling and to push back the feeling she didn't want at that moment. He knew her too well, she decided, he knew what she was thinking sometimes before she did, knew what she needed even when she was clueless.
"How can it not be?" she questioned, it was rhetorical but part of her wanted an answer anyway. John didn't answer, just ran his hands up and down her arms again waiting for her to say the rest of what she needed to, damn him for knowing her. "I should have figured this out by now, Teyla's here, I'm here, the Shadow was right there and I had no idea what to do. If I had, Laura would never have been hurt."
"Elizabeth, despite what some people might think you're only human and to be honest, still fairly new to all of this. Less than a year ago you were still living on Corlain completely oblivious to the prophesy, you barely knew about the war with the Vernai. You might be the Electus but that doesn't mean you have all the answers," John told her. When she had first met him she would never have pegged him for a wordy guy but he was a smart men, smarter than he let people think. "Laura would never blame you for what happened and when she wakes up she'll tell you the same thing herself. If the roles were reversed, if Laura was the Electus instead of you and you were injured by the Shadows, would you blame her?"
"No," Elizabeth replied after a moment. She sighed and turned around in his arms putting her own hands on his chest.
"You know me a little too well," she told him and then smiled "I hate you."
"I hate you too, nothing but trouble," he replied with a grin. Despite that being exactly what she feared, that she was nothing but trouble to the people she cared about the way he said it didn't hurt her the way she would have expected it to, even as a joke. He leaned forward and kissed her, slowly moving his hands from her arms to her waist, she wrapped her own around his neck. Just once it would be nice if they could be a normal couple, they' never even been on a date but she knew that at least for now, this was how their relationship had to be, behind closed doors.
He backed her up against the sink, bringing his body flush against hers and his hand to the back of her head. He ran his fingers through her hair, pulling her in more deeply. God, she shouldn't love this man so much when she'd known him for such a short amount of time. Then again, it wasn't so short when she really thought about it, less than a year maybe but not by much.
"Stop thinking," John mumbled against her lips, the words sounding a little too much like an order, one she wasn't inclined to disobey though.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
Rodney could hear the noise from half way down the corridor, the sound of skin hitting leather over and over again. He followed it into cargo bay three, they didn't use this room for storage so it had somehow become a make shift gym of sorts, Laura, Marcus and John used it a lot when they needed to wind down or just take their frustrations out on something before they got released on a friend. He peeked his head through the doorway, curious as to who was in there at this Godforsaken hour of the night.
The gym was huge, it was supposed to be a cargo bay after all, all of the equipment was to the side of the room, there wasn't much of it, just enough to make the room useful. The rest of the room was empty, a wide open space that was wasted. It was Marcus, standing there in his sweat pants and boots, beating the crap out of the poor punch bag. It would probably have been wise to turn around and leave, let the Agent vent for a while but instead he stepped further into the room.
"What do you want McKay?" Marcus asked without stopping his relentless torture of the punch bag.
Rodney didn't actually have an answer; instead he just moved to stand beside Lorne, keeping himself at a safe distance. The Agent was obviously angry, worried, given the situation Rodney couldn't blame him, admittedly he was worried too. "She'll be fine," he stated feeling his own uncertainty rise. "Right?"
Marcus hit the bag noticeably harder. "She's tough, if anyone could come out of this it'd be her."
Rodney decided not to ask if anyone could come out of this, Laura's condition hadn't changed since Carson had managed to stabilise her. She was still unconscious, Carson was sat beside her bed, he'd barely moved from there. The whole ship was feeling the effects of Laura's condition, minus their two Vernai passengers of course; he doubted they could care less if they tried.
"Why are you up this late anyway?" Marcus asked, his fist connected with the punch bag again followed very quickly by the other one, Rodney had to wonder how he wasn't leaving a dent in the thing.
"I was running some tests on the samples from... the stadium, I wanted to get them finished before I went to sleep," he explained, in truth he had tried to go to bed hours ago but like the night before he'd spent over an hour staring at the ceiling before he'd given up and gotten back out of bed again. It was inevitable really that he would end up in his lab, just like Marcus had ended up here, just like Laura would have ended up here.
"Find anything?" Marcus questioned not slowing his assault on the inanimate object even for a second. He hit it hard, right where the ribs would be if it was a person and the Agent glared at it as he moved, hitting it again, hard enough to crack bones.
"Nothing I haven't seen before," Rodney replied feeling the frustration of not being able to find answers. Usually there was something, regardless of how small he could do to help, something he could learn that would lend a hand to whoever was working on whatever. Even with the cloud he had been able to learn enough to be useful but the Shadow Warriors seemed determined to remain a mystery.
Marcus finally stopped, grabbing the punch bag with both of his hands and leaning his head against it as he caught his breath. Rodney could see the mess he'd made of hands, violent red marks that were probably going to turn into bruises. He should have worn gloves but Rodney had the distinct feeling that pointing that out would be a bad idea so he kept it to himself. Marcus released the punch bag and walked to the bench at the side of the room, picking up his towel and drying the sweat from his face. He hung the towel over his shoulder and took a drink of his water, releasing some of his tension with a heavy sigh.
"Laura will be fine," Marcus stated with a little more confidence than before. "She enjoys bickering with us too much to quit now."
Rodney nodded, hoping he was right but at the same time he knew Laura's condition wasn't good.
He banged his fist on the desk feeling the impact all the way up his arm but ignored it. The screen which moments ago had been filled with an image of the Admiral was blank now but he didn't think he'd ever hated it so much. He took a deep breath, calming himself as much as his anger would allow, it would do no good to lose his head, that would only make everything harder, land him in hotter water than he was already in. He sat back down in his chair, leaning back and letting his mind wonder its own course, find its own solutions to the multitude of problems he had to deal with. The Admiral wanted progress, something that he was seriously lacking in. His anger came back in a very fast wave when the door chime interrupted his thoughts.
"What is it?" he snapped at the door as though it was the doors fault that someone one the other side had pressed the button. It opened, his second in command walking in, he seemed mostly calm but Kolya could see his wariness as he approached his commander. Kolya could admit, to himself, that he had a small amount of respect for his second in command. He had never once failed to follow orders and unlike many colonels, he'd never made an attempt on his commander's life. He knew his place, knew his job and he did it well.
"Sir," he greeted respectfully, he knew being anywhere near Kolya when he was in a bad mood was like walking on thin ice, one wrong move and that was it.
"What is it?" Kolya repeated his question, he better not have to repeat it again.
"We've received a report from our spies within the Alliance," he explained "Dex and Emmagan have been released from prison; they're working with the Alliance to try and stop the Shadow Warriors."
As if Kolya's mood hadn't been bad enough. His second in command knew how thin the ice he was standing on now was, he was keeping his distance from the desk, standing almost to attention and keeping quiet. Kolya dismissed him with a growled order and the Colonel wasted no time in getting out of his office.
The traitor.
Kolya had suffered greatly for what Dex had done; the Admiral had punished him for allowing the Electus to escape. He'd made Kolya's life hell for months afterward, giving him the worst possible assignments one after another. The other Admirals had mocked and shunned him, most of them still did. The Admiral had finally decided he'd been punished enough and Kolya had spent every day since then trying to earn his trust back, his respect. Once the Shadow Warriors had appeared the Admiral had thrown him a bone, a chance to earn back the position he'd spent a life time earning only for Dex to destroy. He'd been tracking the progress of the Shadows, the Electus; Elizabeth Weir had been making appearances at a number of the sites. It would be easier to find her while she was tracking the Shadows, easier to watch for the chance to take her. Now that Emmagan was involved as well...
If he could get both the Electus, if he could capture them both for the Vernai then not only would he earn back everything that Dex and Emmagan had destroyed when they escaped but he'd earn more than that. There wouldn't be a single other Admiral in the fleet that would so much as smirk a cocky smirk at him never mind make one of their lousy attempts on his life and as for the Admiral, Kolya would be his number one. Then there was the traitor, if he could bring Dex in as well, that would just be icing on the cake.
Not only that but he could make Dex and Emmagan pay and boy was he going to make them pay. He would hurt them in every possible way, the worst possible ways. They'd be begging him to stop, to kill them and even then he wouldn't stop. They were going to suffer; they were going to pay for what they did to him.
He smiled; suddenly his mood wasn't so bad.
TBC
