Two more chapters and we are done. I do hope you continue to enjoy this story. Thank you to those of you who are still reading and enjoying this story. I'd love to read your thoughts.
Part 12
"Is that going to be the question of the day?" John stepped forward closer to the boiling pot for some warmth. The rain had stopped but the cold moisture left behind had him shivering a bit.
"You can trust her." The beautiful woman said, moving further away behind him.
"Right, just like I can trust you." And though his spidey senses weren't tingling around these people, it was much too soon to trust any of them, especially the one that had started it all.
"Your abilities far exceed ours. You do not fool me into thinking you would not have escape from us already if you did not trust us." Her wisdom really started to worry him.
True, John has been in far worse situations and there had been just a few opportunities in which he could have escaped, but this was much more interesting and he wanted to see it through. He was a detective, after all.
But he didn't owe them anything, even less the truth. "Oh, that's a little difficult when your hands are tied to a bedpost."
With this John noticed Charin's surprised look towards the young woman and suddenly he felt like he just confessed something that he shouldn't have to his girlfriend's mother on their first date.
"It was necessary." That was all she was going to say, though her eyes never met Charin's surprised, but amused stare.
He decided to continue this charade and since he was hungry, he might as well get a free meal out of it. "I think she should work a little more on her social skills." He said to the elderly woman but loud enough for the other to hear. He turned and afforded her a grin, but she never looked his way. However, he did notice that Charin quite liked the bantering.
"Do you wish to know the reason of your visit?" With this she turned and faced John, clearly trying to change the subject to something more plausible.
Two can play the same game.
"My visit? Is that what this is? You won't even tell me your name!" And John's eyes met her challenging gaze.
"You know who I am. Just as you know you are among good people. Just as you know that the Wraith are cunning and must be defeated." She neared John and his heartbeat jumped just a little. "Our paths have been linked since before our beginning. Ancients have foretold it. Many have risked their lives so that we could meet. Our destiny has been laid before us, John Sheppard. The time has come for you to fight for justice and peace among our people on our side."
His destiny. John never believed in such things, but by the way she spoke, and the nearness of her scent hypnotizing him, she could have him walking on all four limbs chanting their mating song.
And that scared him more than any Wraith armada charging his way.
"Yeah well, destiny is really not my cup of tea, and we already know you turned me down. So, you're either really desperate or you really like bad guys."
He took a fruit from the table for this conversation was getting much too heated for his liking and this was something he'd much prefer to be discussing in her tent or back in his hotel room, with her body straddling his, minus the gun in his mouth and Ronon, for that matter.
Not to mention that this was sounding way too much like a marriage and he sure as hell wasn't married to her!
And from the sound and look of things around him, he wasn't the only one thinking that way. He could hear Ronon's husky laughter from behind, and Charin's held back chuckle.
And it really started to piss him off.
John Sheppard was a loner. Sure there was Elizabeth, and Rodney and the occasional Stargate team here and there when he was sent on missions, but that was only temporary. Nothing was settled and nothing was permanent.
This woman hadn't straight out ask him yet, but she might as well just propose to him right there and then because what she was asking was sure as hell sounding like a permanent commitment. To life and death, in sickness and in health, whatever the hell that was, John suddenly realized he didn't want any part of it.
Nope. He was very happy with his secular, insignificant, dangerous life; very happy, indeed. And if this woman, and If these people had some big scheme of plans for him to follow, they had another thing coming. It was bad enough that he was here for Elizabeth, but now these Athosians wanted to make him their puppet. And that wouldn't be such a problem for him if he knew what the hell they were talking about.
He's going to march his way on out of here. He's heard and seen enough and well, it wasn't meant to be. There was too much at stake, too much to give, too much risk and too much to lose. He'd done that once, and it got him no where but heartbroken and close to his own destruction.
No, not gonna happen. Not over some girl, and her people. Who were they kidding? He's no hero and he's certainly no one's savior!
And in the middle of his own turmoil, John missed something, for suddenly, everything grew dark, and he cursed himself again for letting his guard down.
An imminent moment of time passed, the space of a spark fleeting. This shell of a moment contained a universe of action and thought, all possibilities followed. John Sheppard stood on end seeing it all himself before his eyes.
Ronon's war cry was valiant and fearless. John's impulse was to help the man. But that would have been a mistake, that would have been walking into the fiery wall covering the entire surrounding as all across the village sounds of explosion erupted.
Then, John heard the elderly woman cry out in pain.
How much of this was actual thought, he wasn't sure, but he flung over the table and went straight for Charin who was lying still on the ground. Rolling over her, he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him, trying to find a way to walk through the fire. He got another three or four feet forward when another explosion rent the air from behind him.
Fire pitched upward from all sides, and John knew there was very little time. Helooked back to find Ronon sprawled on the floor and further behind, Kanaan running towards them.
John only had one thought. Where is she?
"The Wraith." Her voice all but whisper from behind him.
"You got caught with your pants down..." He added without looking at her, "Just like me." He replied, trying to ease their current situation and this time, sparing her a glance. And though it was brief, her smile made him count his blessings.
Moving swiftly, she saw a blanket from not too far, grabbed it and wrapped it around the unconscious woman.
"Get her to safety." She cried.
He grabbed her arm, as she was moving towards the flames. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"I will not be far behind." Her face was determined and he figured she must be used to this by now. Still, he didn't have to like it.
"The hell you won't." But before he could say more, she was already gone, running right towards the flames.
John is no stranger to these kinds of scenarios. Actually, this was nothing compared to what he'd seen in Afghanistan and all over the world while he was in the Air Force.
He was trained for this sort of thing and he was damned good at it, too.
First, the elderly woman needed to be taken to safety.
Forcibly, he grabbed the woman, stood up from underneath the table and flung himself closer to the river where a wall of flames stood high and wide, unable to allow him to safely reach its waters. He heard a shout from behind him and there stood Kanaan, in the midst of the flaming inferno, others running to and fro trying to calm the flames cursing through their simple homes.
At least Kanaan seemed to be good for something. He led the rest around him to reach for the river's waters and John could see that in one area of the campsite the flames were receding.
Kanaan motioned John to move to the other side where a small opening gave him access to get the elderly woman to safety.
In one swift move, he went right through the flames with Charin still limp in his arms. Kanaan took the woman from his arms only to pass her along to others.
A grunted sound came from nearby and John looked back to see Ronon shaking his head, and quickly scanning the area. In one leap, he stood and from the sounds coming out of his mouth, John could tell he wasn't very happy.
Humming sounds of Wraith ship hovered once again over the village, firing unmercifully at them once again.
A wall of fire sprung in front of John flinging his body off the ground, pulling him back towards the river. His eyes burned and his vision blurred.
In reality, this all felt like a dream, a really bad nightmare. The world spinning so bizarrely that everything he knew was mashed together into the same physical place; The beautiful woman that somehow was responsible for this. Why did trouble always seem to find him in the form of a beautiful woman?
From up above, the skies began to clear and it seemed that for now, the attacked had stopped.
It didn't make any sense.
The villagers continued to shower their tents with water from the river. It seemed like this wasn't the first time this had happened to them, for they were expertly prepared and soon the flames subsided.
John looked around and noticed that Ronon and Kanaan were not alone anymore and Charin was being tended.
Where is she, he asked out loud, looking back into the flames still burning from where she last stood.
It all happened so quickly, and she had left so abruptly. Still, something within him stopped him from panicking. This woman was no helpless victim. She could take care of herself, but that didn't stop John from wanting to know where she was and making sure that she was safe, and preferably, beside him.
He could hear voices, shouts from all around him, but his ears were buzzing and that was never a good sign. Water hissed upward and a cloud of vapor rose, including the black smoke from the trees that had caught fire, clouding his vision and making it hard for him to breathe.
Just a few minutes ago, he was going to walk out of this place without looking back.
Now, only one thing was perfectly clear in John's mind; He wasn't going anywhere without her.
TBC
