Rodney awoke to the sound of shouting, he was surprised to see that it was light, he must've fallen asleep only he couldn't remember lying down. He looked up and saw Ronon tearing madly through the clearing, shouting and screaming, brandishing his gun to the trees, his eyes wide with fury.

"Where the fuck are you! When I find you, you'll wish you're dead, you'll fucking beg to die"

The Satedan was near completely out of his mind. Rodney cringed and tried to stand, pain seared through his head and with this sharp pain returned his hazy memories.

The Night Before…

'Crack'. The noise that sounded like a twig snapping, bounced off the trees and into the camp, everyone stood at once, Ronon had Murry in his arms, who was now deeply comatose and Rodney, Teyla and John formed a triangle around them, each brandishing their weapons. A grey cylinder flew through the air and landed at their feet. John went to kick it away, managing to fling his foot back only for him to be stunned with a blue shock, falling awkwardly to the ground, still trying to grab the canister as he fell. Teyla swung round, lifted her gun and fired into the trees; a wraith screech and a thud identified a definitive hit.

Three wraith sentinels, festooned with face, arm and leg guards burst from the undergrowth, wielded their guns and one, who happened to be bleeding, shot Teyla in the shoulder and leg, sending her flying to the ground, where the gas spewing from the can, in a combination with the pain, knocked her out. Rodney fired his gun blindly in the direction of the guards, hitting two of them when a fourth, superior, wraith erupted from behind him, kicking him roughly behind the knees and walloping him with the butt of his own gun. The scientist too, fell into the noxious sedating fumes that carpeted the floor at ankle level.

Ronon scrambled for his own gun as the wraith, flanked by the guards advanced and gestured to the wraith balanced precariously in the Satedan's arms, speaking in powerful, brusque tones.

"Hand him over now human, you know not what evil you hold in your arms"

Ronon just managed to grab the gun at his hip and staying poised with the unconscious Murry in one arm, raised it with the other. The guards snarled and rapidly wielded their own weapons but the wraith hissed a warning out of the corner of his mouth to them.

"You might damage him, put the weapons down"

The guards slowly lowered the weapons and the wraith stared down the barrels of Ronon's gun with no fear in his eyes or posture, he was calm and cold to the point of insensitivity to the world around him.

"We are taking him home human. You would not deny him his rightful place, would you?"

Ronon did not even blink, the wraith's words slid off him like oil off of marble and he cocked the gun, positioning his finger against the trigger but not applying pressure just yet.

"Think what is best for him, he is not your pet and you cannot keep him like one. He belongs with us. If you do not hand him over peacefully, we will take him. You cannot shoot us all at once, no matter how talented you are."

The guards, as if on cue, again lifted their guns. The wraith also raised his gun though he was not smiling, but Ronon could sense the others smiling smug confident smiles beneath the masks, he constantly shifted target from each one but as a counter measure they slowly encircled him so he could only see two at once.

"You are out-gunned human, you cannot win here. You can either hand him over and help your own kind or we will kill you, your friends and take him anyway"

He managed to shoot and kill three of the guards with headshots but as soon as he squeezed the trigger for a third time, he felt the spark and paralysing pain of the stunner. As he hit the floor, the last thing he heard was the wraith's voice.

"I am not so callous as to refuse you the chance to survive but do not come after your friend, he will not be the same if you do chance upon another meeting in the future"

And with that, darkness ate up his vision as he still to no avail snatched at the air in front of him. The wraith made sure Ronon was unconscious before signalling to the guards, who lifted Murry by the limbs and carried him away, melding quickly with the murk beyond the greenery.

Meanwhile In Atlantis…

Jenny scrambled on her hands and knees below the lip of the cafeteria salad bar bench, strenuously pulling behind her a box on a coarse grey blanket across the linoleum floor. Inside the conspicuous cardboard box, which had until then contained semi-classified documents, was now filled to the brim with various provisions, cheese sandwiches, stale biscuits, tins of beans and macaroni, various pickled food in jars and other things that had been lying on the bottom shelves of the cupboards and fridges.

Charlotte was running through the corridors, dashing occasionally into the now unoccupied rooms and snatching the blankets and pillows from the beds, shoving them quickly into a quilt cover. She dragged the sack of material through the lesser-travelled hallways and walkways to the hiding place carefully chosen by her. One reason was of course was its remoteness and the other for the lengths to which you have to get to it, through the maze of corridors, up three separate sets of stairwells, through two other big rooms and up a final iron ladder through a half-sized door. The pig-iron grey room on the other side was angular and awkward for anyone taller than five feet to navigate and so was perfect for their mission planning.

Allie and Jake, on a joint mission, snuck cautiously through the infirmary, avoiding the nurses and doctors who bustled around by diving beneath some very convenient gurneys. They eventually made it to the first aid room and after some hunting found what they'd been looking for. A steel box, eighteen inches by six, with a green cross painted on it, Jenny had told them exactly what to take and opening it, they checked a mental list of; a very thick wad of white bandage, lots of packets of bandages and anti-septic wipes, and white tape. But there were also syringes and two vials of liquids called adrenaline and morphine. The two boys were very careful with them, wrapping them protectively in little bits of bandage. Allie shut, locked and jammed the box underneath his baggy t-shirt while Jake made sure the coast was clear and together they hastened back through the rooms to the hidey-hole that Charlotte had shown them.

Conner and Devi sat in the dining room with their meals, with Turi, whom they'd forcibly dragged from Charley's room later that day to discuss what was going on with their young associates.

"I saw Jenny carrying a box filled with food, when I asked what she was doing, she screamed and ran"
Conner began, half-way between worried and elated by the children's antics, Devi felt this too and hiccupped a giggle.

"Yeah, Allie had something stuffed up his shirt, he was running up the stairs"

Turi stared ahead, not feeling anything but a dull numbness, his eyes dim and jaded where they'd usually be alight with ideas unsaid, but well thought of. Silence descended on the table when the two looked to him, expecting a comment but not receiving any. They looked to each other and blushing a little, they grimaced and began to eat, quietly devouring their breakfast while Turi didn't even bother to lift his fork.

A/N I wish to thank Amaruk, Wraithlover, Frankie the Elf and Lymbis for reviewing chapter 24. WOOP!!! it's the twenty-fifth chappie, Go Me lol.

Steve the Plushie: 'glares'

...and of course Go Steve, My Happy Little Helper!! and of course all of you readers and reviewers, 'gives everyone each an extra-big choc-chipped cookie and a colourful woollen hat with pompoms!'

Everyone give love to Mike trying kick his habit of blowing stuff up in a most malicious and delightful manner !!!