Chapter 28 – Blood

Caldwell gently took Elizabeth's hands, and examined her fingers. Some of them were broken at the knuckles, he could see from the purple swelling and the way she was unable to move them. After he had watched her hands, he took a good look at her legs, at her burnt calves; he ran his fingers softly on the surface of the wounds. He saw with faint relief that at least those were not too serious, just superficial sores, only hurting the outer layer of her skin. She coughed up blood again, and her whole body shook from the pain as she fought for breath. He wondered if there was anything he could do to ease her pain and help her.

"I'm sorry," she sighed.

"Sorry for what?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm so sorry for being mean to you," she whispered, her violet-colored fingers tensed in his hands.

"No, no," he protested, "It wasn't you. It was me."

"I behaved so awfully... I'm sorry if I ever hurt you... You are such a good person; you have all my respect... I should've shown you..." Her voice was weak, nearly inaudible. "Will you, please, hug me?"

Caldwell leaned over to her, and slipped his arms carefully beneath her back, pulling her up into a tender embrace. He felt her heavily lifting and sinking bust pressing to his chest. She placed a quick, wet kiss on his chin; her lips left a red blood-stain. Caldwell turned his face down to hers, and kissed her on the forehead. The sad, desperate hug lasted for a long minute; but they parted, when they heard sudden footsteps from the corridor leading to their cell. A female Wraith was arriving, and started to talk with the guard at the end of the passage. As the dim lights fell on her pale, greenish face, they recognized Claire.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Caldwell asked quietly, anxiously holding Weir's trembling hands. Claire's triumphant, evil sneer predicted nothing good. She seemed to be joking about something with the guard, but Caldwell could not understand the Wraith communication, just the cruel smile on her face. Finally, the guard nodded obediently, and walked away, leaving Claire alone in the shady corridor. The colonel stepped protectively between the painfully coughing Elizabeth and the approaching Wraith. He was really surprised, when Claire lowered the stun gun in her hand, and swiftly switched the opening code at the lock panel of the cell. She hung her weapon next to the belt of her dark robe. She absolutely did not look like as if she was about to attack the two captives, so Caldwell stepped back and let her walk in.

"Are you both seriously wounded?" Claire asked.

"No, it's only her blood all over the place," Caldwell answered mournfully. He kneeled down next to Weir, and stroked her blood-stained, pale cheeks.

"You are free to go now," the Wraith said to Caldwell. "I'll show you where the Darts are, you can escape aboard one of them. She's too weak. You have to leave her here, since you can't do anything to save her."

"No. I'll either go with her or I won't try to escape at all," Caldwell said in a determined manner, leaving no doubts about the fact that he truly meant his words. He was about to help Weir up into a sitting position, but she did not seem to be fine with it.

"Leave me," Elizabeth said, hardly breathing. "I'm almost dead, it's no use trying to save me..."

"You'd better remain silent," Caldwell answered grumpily, carefully lifting her up in his arms. As he did so, the huge pool of blood covering the floor underneath Weir's tormented body became visible.

"We have no time to carry her to the Darts," Claire said with a frown. "It's a long way from here, it would kill her."

"We can't let her die," Caldwell answered quickly. "Please, find out something. Anything! Please!" He would have never believed that he would once stand aboard a hive and beg this desperately a Wraith to help.

Claire pondered over it for a second, and then she turned to him again. "I think Michael's laboratory is somewhere here. That moron made experiments on humans, and he has some human medicine, an operating-table and instruments there. If we can find it, you can try to save her life somehow."

Caldwell seemed very dumbfounded by the idea. "I'm not a doctor," he muttered.

"Neither am I." She shrugged. "You have still more clues about human anatomy and medical treatments than me. Come on, I'll show you the way, bring her quickly, if you really want to try to save her."

"It's not a good idea," he shook his head. "She needs operations or what, her lungs are about to collapse..."

"Then, you'll need to operate her."

"But I have no idea what to do. I can only kill her with it."

"Come on, we have no time to dramatize it," Claire impatiently signed for him to follow her. "She has only a few minutes left. You don't have enough time to carry her to the Darts, that distance would be too long for her. You either try to save her with Michael's medicines and instruments, or you can leave her here alone to die without trying a thing. I can't figure out any other options."

"Okay, okay, let's go to the lab," Caldwell nodded resignedly. He pressed Weir's shaking body to him, and followed the Wraith out of the cell.


Rodney and John waited in their cell nervously, trying to figure out what kind of horrors Michael had been planning for them.

"The worst thing is that we had the chance to kill this bastard, when he was in Atlantis, and we let him outsmart us, as well as we let this other monster, Claire live, only for getting us into more trouble then we already were," Rodney fumed.

"I still don't see, how she escaped from the city," John wondered. "She was well-guarded, her cell was indestructible... It's strange."

"Oh, I'm sure she acted very well, and she could somehow convince Carson to let her come here," McKay answered gloomily. "Maybe she said that she could help us, if she gets aboard the hive or something like this..."

"It doesn't sound very much like her," John shook his head. "She has never asked us to let her free, not even once. She has not asked us for anything at all, and never offered her help willingly. And even if she said things like that, Carson could not be so stupid to believe her."

"Okay, then maybe the shots of the super-hive caused an electric break-down in the city, and her cell opened on its own due to the failure. That's my last guess," Rodney said with a tired grimace. "It doesn't really matter, does it?"

"I bet it doesn't," Sheppard nodded. "We should worry about the fact that Michael may arrive in any minute, and then we have to face a terrifying torture and death, if we can't find a good plan to avoid it."

"You're the soldier," McKay remarked, "It's your turn to solve a situation like this."

"No, because if we want to open the lock of our cell, it's a technical problem, and that's your field," John responded, smiling.

"The lock panel is outside, I can't do a thing to it from the inside," The scientist retorted, "But if Michael steps in this place, you might try to fight him."

"He has a spear gun, but I have nothing," John said with a hopeless moan. "But if you really want to see me get killed first, I can try it..."

McKay stared at him. "Are you a fool or what?" he asked, half-shouting. "I was just joking. I know that you can't do anything to stop that monster. How can you even say that I want to see you get killed?"

"Okay, calm down, I was just kidding," John put his hand on Rodney's shoulder reassuringly.

"It's not funny," the scientist grumbled. He turned away from the soldier resentfully.

"I love you," Sheppard replied silently.

Rodney froze. "Er... what?" He turned back astonished.

"You did not hear it, or you just want me to repeat it?" John asked with a smile.

"Er... er... me... I just..." Rodney stammered. He had no idea what to say. His brain was working with incredible force to find a proper answer, but he just sat their dumbfounded instead, staring at John dully. When he finally realized, that he kept looking at the other man for at least five minutes in dumb silence, he cleared his throat, and tried to say something, anything, but he just succeeded in a sentence of "ers" and "wells" without the slightest meaning. Michael's arrival graciously solved the situation for him. The half-Wraith walked towards their cell with slow, self-assured steps, swinging his gun lazily in his right hand. The way he did that reminded John of something, but at that moment he could not recall what it was.

"Step away from the entrance," Michael told the humans. They reluctantly moved backwards, and he opened the lock panel, pointing his spear gun at the captives.

"Any last wishes? Any nice good-byes?" the half-Wraith asked sarcastically. "From now on, I only want to hear your painful screams, so if you have anything on your mind before I start, go ahead!"

"Is Elizabeth alright?" John inquired.

"Oh, I'm sure she isn't," Michael replied, and laughed viciously.

"Please, no! What did you do to her?" Rodney asked, feeling cold shudders running through his muscles.

"Me? I did nothing," Michael responded. His tone showed that he was mocking.

Claire appeared around the corner, and Michael turned to her.

"Did you kill them both?" he asked her. John and Rodney felt their heart skip a beat, as she lifted her hands up, and they caught sight of the red, human blood covering her fingers.

"Oh, no," McKay groaned, petrified, following with his eyes the blood-streams dripping from Claire's hands. John was unable to talk, just stared at the blood-drops.

"Very well," Michael whispered with a devilish smile. "Now you see what has happened to Weir," he turned to Sheppard, "But don't worry, you'll soon follow her."