Authors Note – Here it is, the final chapter, it's a pretty long one, it had been longer but I decided to move a couple of scenes into the previous chapter, don't worry I did it ages before posting so you haven't missed anything. I hope you enjoy it!

HeartyJessica – I'm glad you've enjoyed the story and I'm kinda sad that this is the final chapter, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the ending.

Wormhole – Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the final chapter.

Fyd818 – (joins in chanting) Chaya is dead! lol. Yeah, I didn't really think Ronon would go from despising everything that John and Elizabeth are to liking them just cos they're human now, they were still vampires, they still killed people and I think part of Ronon will always be reminded of that. I'm kinda sad this is over too; I've actually really enjoyed writing the last few chapters, thanks for the reviews.

Kuroima – I hope you don't ruin your nails too much in this chapter, I can't believe it's the last one, I hope you enjoy it though and thanks for your reviews.

Sparkly – Was it twelve years, I write so much I can never remember everything, will go back and check that, thanks. That's right, Kavanaugh is a weasel, nothing knew there lol and this is the final chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

Saphire – Ronon just isn't the warm and friendly type lol, like with Michael in the actual show, he'll always see what they used to be not what they are and it'd take a lot of work to change that. I did feel a little bad for Andrew but then... well you'll see lo. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy the final chapter.

Jammeke – I'm glad the last chapter came out realistic, I was kinda hoping it would lol. Chaya really does make a perfect bad gut, funny cos she wasn't one in the show lol. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Steph – Of course Chaya's father isn't going to let it go, Chaya had to get it from somewhere lol. I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for the reviews.


Chapter 29

Teyla paced back and forth in Ronon's apartment, he was stood to the side watching her go from left to right in front of him. He'd given up trying to get her to stop and despite knowing that pacing wasn't helping she couldn't seem to keep herself from doing it. She didn't understand Elizabeth's decision; she hadn't been prepared for it at all.

"She' going to give up everything, her life, her home, her job and her family, all of for a man she's known for two months, not even that," Teyla ranted, the decision didn't make sense, she couldn't feel that much for him, she barely knew him.

"Have you actually seen them?" Ronon questioned, it was the first time he'd mentioned the former vampires without any trace of disgust or hate in his voice. "She loves him, he loves her and I think that's the only thing that matters to either of them."

Love? She hadn't really considered that, she'd noticed some... affection between them, they obviously cared for each other but the word love had never come to mind. Elizabeth Weir who had refused to let people get that close to her heart, could she really had found love as a vampire? Still, it had been less than two months, how could you fall that deeply in love with some in such a short amount of time?

She looked at Ronon then and realised her own feeling for someone she barely knew weren't much different. She didn't know if she could call it love but she did feel something, something that went pretty deep and if it were her being forced to make a decision between her life here and Ronon, she wasn't sure which she would choose anymore.

She heard a shattering sound behind her and turned around in time to see the glass of the window near the fire escape raining down on the wooden floor. Several people walked through just as the door behind them crashed open, three more people came through there. One of them hit the light switch, casting the apartment into almost complete darkness, only a small amount of light from the moon illuminated the area near the windows. Teyla couldn't see anything, had no idea where their attackers were. There were no footsteps, no loud breathing; nothing to give away their positions and Teyla felt every muscle in her tighten with fear. She felt a breath on her neck, it was too low for it to be Ronon so she knew it was one of them, she turned around, swinging her arm out and it thankfully connected with something, from the grunt of pain she was fairly sure it had been a person.

She knew the layout of Ronon's apartment well enough by now; her bag was on the counter in the kitchen along with her wooden stake. If she could get to that she would at least have half a chance of defending herself and ... the UV torch was in there too, if she could get to that she'd have way more than half a chance of living through this.


Laura was sat on the counter in the lab, Rodney's complaining had become nothing more than background noise now and she was happily ignoring it. Carson was just helping Radek to clean up the last of the mess they'd made with their experiment and then she and Carson were going for dinner, late as it was. She wasn't sure how it had happened but she seemed to have ended up dating him without either of them realising it.

"I can't believe they actually cut our budget again and Laura will you get down from there, my lab counters are not chairs," Rodney continued and Laura nodded her head and then stayed exactly where she was as Rodney went back to complaining about their budget cut.

"Alright Laura," Carson said, taking off his white jacket and hanging it up by the door. "Ready to go?"

Before she could respond the door to the lab opened, a man that nobody seemed to recognise walked in. He stared at everyone in the room, his expression unreadable but Laura didn't like it at all.

"Can I help you?" Radek questioned but the man didn't respond, just looked at some papers in his hand, Laura got a brief glimpse as he lifted them, they looked like pictures, photographs maybe. He looked at everyone in the room once more, then back at the paper as though he was trying to compare them. He looked back through the glass door of the lab, nodding his head and a moment later five more people walked in.

Laura, who was still sitting on the counter, took in the appearance of all five people, four men and a woman. Her eyes widened as realisation hit her "Vampires," she said quickly and then everything happened quickly. The woman walked over to Laura, calmly as though she wasn't about to kill her and Laura slid off the counter, backing up toward her bag. She'd decided to follow Teyla's example and start carrying a wooden stake around with her, something she was grateful for now, if she could only get to it.

She kept her hand on the counter as she walked backwards, almost sighing in relief when she felt it connect with the leathery fabric of her bag. She slowly put her hand in the bag, hoping the vampire didn't notice her movements. No such luck though, just as her hand found the wooden stake the woman saw what she was doing and lunged forward with a speed that Laura hadn't been prepared for. She was knocked back into the wall, pinned there by the woman's hands but fortunately she had managed to keep her own hand on the wooden stake.

The woman bared her vampire teeth, pointed fangs that were aimed for her neck and Laura lifted the piece of wood, slamming it into the vampire's chest. The woman stepped backward, releasing Laura from her vice lie grip and staring down at the weapon stuck in her chest. She fell to the floor then and Laura only just registered that it was the first time she'd actually killed anyone, whether they'd been a vampire or not she'd taken a life.

She didn't have long to ponder the thought, instead she knelt down beside the dead woman, taking the wooden stake from her chest and turning her attention to the rest of the fight. One vampire was on the floor, a small knife sticking out his chest, it had probably just missed his heart but she was willing to bet it hurt like hell. Rodney was still struggling with one of the vampires; Carson was holding his own against another but Radek wasn't doing so well against the remaining two.

He'd been knocked to the floor, one vampire holding him down whilst another prepared to feed on him. She ran over to him, stabbing the vampire that had been heading for his neck in the back, hoping she'd got his heart. She didn't wait to find out, she stood up straight again and kicked the other vampire, her boot connecting with his face and sending him flying backwards.

"Thank you," Radek said as he sat up and then pulled her down to the floor, the vampire who had previously been on the floor with a knife in his chest had apparently gotten up and wasn't too pleased about being stabbed. He'd tried to grab Laura but fortunately Radek had seen it and pulled her out of harms way, he turned to his side, grabbing the wooden stake from the body of the male vampire and stood up, hitting the stumbling vampire exactly where his heart should be.

The sound of crashing diverted Laura's attention to where Rodney had been throw across the room, slamming into a wooden cabinet and breaking part of it before he slumped to the ground. The vampire that had thrown him was closing in on him and Rodney looked around him nervously, his hand grabbing a broken piece of wood and ramming it into the vampire's chest as he knelt down to grab him.

Laura ran over to him, leaving the now armed Radek to deal with the other vampire; she picked up a piece of wood and threw it to Carson who only just saw it in time to grab it. He hit the vampire with it, missing his heart the first time and pulling it out to make another attempt. When the vampire hit the floor he was dead, all of the vampires were dead.

"Anyone hurt?" Carson asked slightly shakily, everyone shook their head and Laura walked over to her bag, pulling out her cell phone.

"I'm gonna call Teyla and Ronon, we'll need some help getting rid of these bodies and the sooner the better, if the police show up we'll have a hell of a time explaining this," she stated, her voice shaking slightly and Carson walked over to her. She gave him a small smile as she held the phone to her ear, the ringing seemed to gone on forever before it went to voice mail. "She's not answering," she said worriedly.


Lorne left the police station, his car was parked pretty close and he was grateful he'd been given such a good parking space; he was too tired to walk a great distance just to reach his car. A whole day of paperwork was more tiring than people would think.

A man stepped in front of him, another behind and a third to his left and Lorne had no doubt in his mind what was going on. He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out his wooden stake out. The vampire in front of him smirked as though he wasn't at all afraid of the weapon and Lorne decided that would be his mistake. He waited for the vampires to make the first move, the man who smirked being arrogant enough to make the first attempt. Lorne hit him, his fist colliding with his face and halting his attack long enough for Lorne to stake him.

The other two vampires hesitated and Lorne decided to use that against them, he moved toward the vampire at his left, he didn't react quickly enough and Lorne was able to stake him as well. The third vampire grabbed him from behind, using his strength to throw him against one of the concrete pillars in the parking lot. He fell against the floor, standing even as dazed as he was and trying to see where the final vampire was.

The hand that grabbed his arm was answer enough and before the vampire could throw him into something else Lorne swung for him with his free arm, somehow managing to hit the vampire. He turned around, staking him and taking a deep breath when he fell; he wasn't dead yet, he had a small smirk on his face.

"You're dying, what's so funny?" Lorne questioned.

"It doesn't matter... the others will get your friends... and it's just a matter of time... before they get you," the vampire managed to choke out, the blood gurgled sound the last he made before he died.


"Can we go out?" Elizabeth asked, she had yet to get used to sleeping during the night and going out during the day, it was taking her some adjusting. John seemed to be having just as much trouble with it, maybe more since he'd been a vampire a lot longer than she had. She wasn't sure what was going to happen to them now, Lorne had been right that John couldn't go back to his former life now; there would be too many unanswerable questions. Well, not unanswerable, they had answers, just none that people would actually believe.

"Where do you want to go?" John questioned, they both knew it wasn't safe after dark anymore but they were gonna go crazy stuck in a hotel all the time, at least at night the chances of anyone recognising them were slim, an advantage to the night life that vampires had to live, there was less chance someone from your past life would see you.

"I'd say the all night shopping mall but with all the vampires there that would be a bad idea," Elizabeth replied thoughtfully.

"Do you think they know that almost all the customers they gate after dark are actually vampires?" John questioned humorously and Lizabeth raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes John, I'm sure they sit around at the monthly board meetings, looking at the numbers saying 'and 50 percent of our customers are vampires, I think we need to market toward them a little more, perhaps an 'All the humans you can eat restaurant', seriously John, how would they possibly know that?" Elizabeth replied, trying not to laugh as John narrowed his eyes at her.

"No need to get nasty, smartass," John said and Elizabeth smiled and walked across the room to where he was standing, eyes still narrowed.

"I'm sorry," she stated, kissing his cheek "But you made that one really easy."

She laughed as she walked away, trying to find her jacket in the bag she'd brought from her apartment. When she didn't find it she decided to steal the one John had been wearing earlier, it was too big for her but she didn't particularly care.

"We can just take a look around," John stated, grabbing his other jacket and opening the door. She walked out of it and stopped when she saw the group of people walking down the corridor toward their room. They spotted her just as John joined her and Elizabeth had no doubt in her mind who they were and why they were here. They couldn't win this, hadn't even been able to win the last one and that had been against less vampires.

"Fire escape," John said quickly, grabbing her arm and running in the opposite direction to the oncoming group. The pounding footsteps behind them told Elizabeth the vampires were coming after them with more speed than John and Elizabeth were capable of out running.

One of the vampires caught up to them at the door, Elizabeth reached into her purse, pulling out the wooden stake Teyla and Lorne had insisted she carry. She ducked, barely avoiding the fist of the vampire and slammed the stake into his chest, not bothering to wait for him to die. She turned around, John had opened the fire escape door and the two of them ran through it, making their way down the metallic stairs as quickly as they could.

Another vampire caught up to them, John being the one behind got hit and almost stumbled forward into Elizabeth. "Keep going," he shouted at her and with some hesitance she ran, she was almost at the bottom when a vampire landed on the steps in front of her, using the metal railing to swing down. She didn't waist any time, he was lower on the stairs than she was so she kicked him in the chest and watched as he fell backwards. He stopped when the stairs turned and she ran passed him before he could recover.

Glancing up she saw John was on his way down again, the dead or dying body of a vampire sprawled on the metal behind him and more vampires chasing them from further up. John passed the vampire she had knocked down the stairs, he was just about to get up when John kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious. He reached the ground and ran to stand beside her as several vampires jumped down, crossing the distance between where they had been and the floor, if anyone but a vampire had tried to jump that far they would probably have broken their legs.

Trapped in the alleyway John and Elizabeth had no choice but to fight, to the side of them was a pile of rubbish and John walked over to it, pulling out a thin stick of wood which looked like it had once been a staircase rail. It had obviously broken though and John snapped the worn wood in half, handing one part to Elizabeth.

"You will not live through this," a voice said and the vampires parted to reveal an older looking man in his forties. Elizabeth saw John tense beside him and she looked at him in confusion.

"Chaya's father," he whispered and Elizabeth felt a sense of dread go through her.

"It is cowardly to run from a fight," Andrew stated.

"Not if you know your gonna lose, then it's smart," John replied and Elizabeth resisted the urge to hit him over the head, now was not the time for stupid comments.

"You killed my daughter," Andrew said, ignoring John's comment, he walked closer to them and Elizabeth could see both coldness and anger in his eyes.

"She tried to kill us first," John stated as Andrew stopped walking, Elizabeth tightened her grip on the piece of wood John had given her.

"We know about the cure," he said quietly, obviously it wasn't common knowledge and he didn't want the other vampires to hear it. "Hit squads are taking out all of the others who were involved, including the slayer and that pesky Emmagan. By morning, all of you will be dead and life can go on as it should, minus of course my daughter but killing you will help with that."

Andrew gestured for the other vampires to come forward, Elizabeth counted five of them left, not including the one that was still unconscious on the fire escape. She raised the wood in her hand, stepping back to avoid the fist of one vampire only move straight into the arms of another, he grabbed her around the waist and held her in place as the other moved closer to her. It seemed he had no intention of feeding on her, instead he carried his own wooden stake and he raised it, prepared to bring it down on her chest.

Elizabeth kicked her legs out, somehow managing to connect them with the vampire's knees and heard a sickening crack which was probably one of his knees breaking. The vampire holding her was shocked enough that he loosened his grip on her and Elizabeth used that to her advantage, shifting in his arms so she could elbow him in the stomach. He released her completely now and she turned around, staking him in the heart and within a second he fell to the ground dead. She took the piece of wood from his chest as the other vampire grabbed her ankle, not yet ready to give up the fight and she turned on him, staking him as well.

John had already killed two of the three vampires that had gone for him and she saw him take out the third and final one. Something grabbed her hair from behind yanking her backwards as an arm, which could only belong to Andrew, went around her waist. He pulled at her hair painfully and despite her efforts to hold it back a small cry of pain escaped, attracting John's attention. He turned around, in time to see Andrew move his hand to her throat. John took a step toward them, anger evident in his movements.

"Ah ah, I wouldn't do that Mr Sheppard," Andrew taunted, halting John's footsteps "Unlike the two of you I have all the strength of a vampire, one quick twist of my hand and I can break her neck, killing her just like you killed my daughter. You're going to watch her die John, see what it feels like to lose someone you love."

Elizabeth's eyes connected with John and though she tried not to show it she knew he could see her fear. Along with the knowledge that she was about to die came the realisation that she had never told John how she felt about him, she was sure he knew but she she'd never been able to say it. She kept her gaze on him and mouthed the three words she hadn't been able to say before 'I love you'.

John obviously got the message, his eyes darkened and he looked at Andrew "Let her go," he said, a fierce protectiveness in his tone and something dangerous she hadn't heard from him before, not even when he had threatened Michael.

Andrew laughed "You are in no position to make demands Sheppard. In fact I've had enough of this game."

Elizabeth felt Andrew's hand tighten on her neck and she closed her eyes, for the second time in as many days waiting for death to come. It felt closer this time though and she felt the dampness of a tear as it moved slowly down her cheek. She heard footsteps, knew John was trying to stop Andrew but she also knew he wouldn't be fast enough.

Instead of the death she was expecting she head Andrew grunt in pain, his hold on her weakening. She opened her eyes, John was stood in front of her, staring in surprise at Andrew and she pulled herself free from him, turning around as Andrew slumped to the floor, the vampire they had knocked unconscious standing behind him with a metal pole in his hand, blood coating the end of it.

Chaya had apparently got her stubborn determination from her a father, a trait that would be admirable under other circumstances. He pushed himself to his knees, ignoring the bleeding wound his back, the vampire's speedy healing ability already taking care of it. He picked up the piece of wood that was nearby, the one that Elizabeth had dropped when he'd grabbed her and swung for Elizabeth, almost hitting her as he got to his feet. John wasted no time in stepping forward; he stuck his own piece of wood into Andrew's chest, watching as the men fell back to the floor, dying within seconds.

John and Elizabeth both turned to the vampire, who dropped the pole. "If there's a cure for this, I want it," he told them and Elizabeth released a breath of relief as John reached for her. He kept a wary eye on the vampire even as he pulled Elizabeth into a hug, holding her to him so tightly she almost couldn't breath, not that she cared about oxygen at that moment, as long as she was getting enough to live, she really didn't mind.


Her fumbling hands finally found her bag through the dark and she reached inside, she had no idea where anyone was, not even Ronon. She found the wooden stake and put it down on the counter right in front of so she'd be able to find it again, a moment later her hand found the cool metal of the UV flashlight. She pulled it out of her bag, switching it on and the small circle of light immediately shined on the vampire that had been trying to sneak up on her. He cried out in pain, trying to back away but Teyla kept the light on him, her free hand grabbing the wooden stake as she walked toward the vampire.

She removed the light from him and staked him before he had chance to recover, that was one down. By her count there had been at least seven of them, four came through the window and three through the door. She felt a hand on her shoulder and span around shining the flash light on whoever had touched her.

"Relax, it's just me," Ronon's voice told her instead of the scream of pain she'd been expecting.

"I thought you'd quit sneaking up on me," she hissed, knowing full well the vampires could hear them anyway.

Ronon turned around suddenly, and Teyla followed his move with the flashlight only just seeing the vampire that had been behind him. Ronon had already got his hands on a wooden stake and he hit the vampire easily, allowing him to collapse to the floor dead.

"I'm going for the lights," Ronon whispered and then disappeared into the dark again. Teyla sighed and looked around her, casting the flashlight on everything she could in search of the vampires, there were five left somewhere and she didn't want anymore sneaking up on her. The light found one of them who cried out and then ducked down behind the couch Teyla walked toward it, the light finding it again and as it struggled against the burning pain she staked it, wondering how she could kill like this and not feel guilty.

They came to kill her; she had to remind herself of that, they were here to kill her and Ronon just for knowing what they know. With that thought in mind she continued her search, there was the sound of a struggle coming from near the door and she pointed the flash light in that direction, even when the sound stopped. She located a body, too small to be Ronon so it had to be another vampire, that was four down, three still to go.

A moment later the lights came on and she saw Ronon standing by the light switch, before she could do anything a heavy weight pressed into her side, knocking her to the floor. It took her several moments to register it as a person, one of the remaining vampires. She'd dropped the flashlight but the stake was still in her hands, she aimed it for female vampire's chest but she grabbed her hand to stop her, turning the stake toward Teyla.

Using every bit of strength she could find she pushed the vampire to the side, forcing it to fall off her and giving her the upper hand, even if it was only for a second. A second was all she needed though, she slammed the stake into the woman's chest, she died quickly and Teyla took the wood back. Ronon had already killed one of the other vampires but the final one was no where to be seen. They both searched the room and Teyla jumped when something fell against her, she turned around, the body of a vampire hitting the floor and she looked up, Lorne was stood there with Ronon's crossbow.

"Hey," he said, a small smile tugging at his lips and Teyla laughed at the sheer insanity of the whole situation. Laura rushed up behind Lorne, her eyes scanning the bodies that now littered the apartment and then looking at Teyla, Lorne and Ronon who were all still smiling.

"If something's funny could you tell me cos I don't see it," Laura stated and Teyla shook her head as Carson, Radek and Rodney also arrived, all of them looking exhausted and a little rattled.

"What's going on?" Teyla questioned.

"We got attacked at the lab, they were pretty determined to kill us all too," Laura informed her and Teyla sighed.

"I was attacked on my ay out of the station," Lorne added as he grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. "I gave John a cell phone in case we need to call him and Elizabeth," Lorne stated and it only just occurred to Teyla that if the rest of them had been attacked then they probably had too.

"They're not picking up," Lorne replied in concern and Teyla was about to start worrying about it when two more people walked through the door.

"That's cos we don't have the phone," John stated as he and Elizabeth joined the group, Elizabeth had an angry red mark around her neck, one that looked very much like a hand.

"We got attacked at the hotel, Chaya's father was with them , he told us he knew about the cure and hit squads were coming after all of you as well," Elizabeth explained and Teyla felt a wave of frustration, would this never end?

"It would explain why they decided we all had to die," Lorne said "A cure would be a huge threat to them, as would anyone who knew about it."

"Which would be everyone in this room," Teyla continued and turned to look at the bodies. "What do we do now?"

"We clean up these bodies, it doesn't look like the police have heard about our little break in," Ronon began "Everyone can stay here for now; I doubt they'll attack again tonight and we can figure out what to do in the morning."


After a restless night with everyone struggling to sleep, the group went through their morning activities. Carson and Teyla were cooking breakfast; John, Ronon and Lorne were boarding up the broken window which they'd merely covered with a sheet of plastic last night. Elizabeth and Laura were sweeping up the broken glass, Radek was in the bathroom and Rodney was still asleep, snoring away on the couch, the only person who hadn't had trouble sleeping.

"Breakfast," Teyla shouted and threw a towel at Rodney's head, waking the scientist with a snort and a grunt.

Radek emerged from the bathroom and everyone sat down to eat, most of them only going through the motions of it, no one but Rodney seemed to have a particularly good appetite that morning. Once everyone was finished they sat their in awkward silence, nobody wanted to say what they were all thinking.

"They won't stop until we're all dead," Lorne finally stated.

"We've survived this long," Teyla continued before the conversation could die again "But we can't keep doing this forever, sooner or later our luck will run out."

"So what do we do?" Carson questioned.

"There's only one thing we can do... we disappear," Lorne told them all and there were several ashen faces in the group, the idea not sitting well with the majority, not even Lorne himself seemed to like the idea.

"Well, we were going to do that anyway," Elizabeth stated as she sat next to John, her hand in his as it rested on his lap. John turned to look at her, his eyes going from hers to the red mark on her neck and Teyla could see now what Ronon had meant last night. Elizabeth did love him and John even more obviously loved her.

"It would mean giving up everything," Rodney stated "Our homes, our families, our careers, I don't know about the rest of you but I've worked hard to get where I am and I've got a promising career ahead of me."

"Which will mean nothing if you die," Laura pointed out

"Look they won't attack again until tonight, you all have that long to figure out what you want to do," Lorne stated "In the mean time, I'll start setting things up."


Everyone had gone about their day separately, each making their own decision. After calling work to tell them she was sick, Laura had gone with Carson, Radek and Rodney to the lab to get as much data as they could on the cure, they wanted to make sure they had plenty of backups since the lab was likely to get hit again, probably that night. Lorne had gone to the station to start setting up new lives for everyone, once they were in place people could decide if they wanted to take them.

John and Elizabeth had stayed in the apartment, neither wanted to get seen by anyone who might recognise them. Ronon had kept pretty much to himself all day and Teyla had gone to the store to buy everything that those who decided to go would need for the trip, a ridiculous amount of chocolate, sweets and soft drinks included.

Everyone finally arrived back at the apartment as Lorne informed them all that everything was set, their train would be leaving in an hour, anyone who wanted to go would have to be on it. They all gathered around, everyone except Ronon who was still in his bedroom.

"I know we have to give up a lot," Lorne stated "I've been thinking about this all day. I love being a cop, I've worked my entire life to get here and the idea of giving all that up isn't hugely appealing but neither is dying. If I stay here that's what will happen sooner or later and as Laura said earlier, none of what I've worked for will matter much when I'm dead, not only that but staying puts other people in harms way. So I'm going and a day isn't much time to make a decision like this but we don't have a lot of time, you all need to decide now."

"We're coming," John said almost immediately, his and Elizabeth's decision had been made even before the attacks last night.

"I'm going to," Laura said with a nervous glance at Carson.

"So am I," the doctor told them and gave Laura a small smile, Laura returned it, obviously relieved.

"I will also be going," Radek stated "What good is being a scientist if you're not around to use what you know."

"I guess I'm coming too," Rodney informed them, there was still some uncertainty in his voice but it seemed he had made his decision.

Teyla was the only one left and she found she couldn't answer, she knew what she should do, she should go but there was another factor in her decision, she was surprised to find it was the biggest factor of them all. She stood up without a word and walked away from the group, she knew they needed an answer but she couldn't give it to them yet. She walked over to Ronon's bedroom, knocked on the door and waited for his reply, the muffled 'What?' that came through the door. Teyla decided that was invitation enough and walked in, finding Ronon stood by the window, staring out at the streets below.

"The others have all made their decision," she told him "They're all going."

"Are you?" he asked her.

"I should," she replied and watched for his reaction, his jaw tightened as did his shoulders and she knew that she couldn't go, not if he didn't go with her. Elizabeth's decision to go with John made complete sense to her now. "But I won't... not unless you come."

"I can't go," he said quietly and Teyla closed her eyes, in all honest she had expected him to say, she knew he wouldn't just be able to give up his fight against vampires, not after everything they had taken from him, he wasn't the type to just let things go. Still, part of her had hoped that he would agree to go, she wanted to be safe, wanted to go with the others and leave all of this behind her.

"Then I won't go either," she barely whispered, she knew that staying would probably mean dying at some point but she wouldn't, couldn't go without him. As much as she wanted to be safe, she wanted to be with him more.

"You have to go, they'll kill you if you stay here," he stated and she shook her head.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take, I'm staying with you," she informed him, her voice stronger than it had been since she entered the room. She meant what she said and he had to know it.

"They took my wife, I promised I'd kill every one of them," he said as though he was trying to remind himself, maybe even convince himself of why he had to stay.

"What would she want you to do?" Teyla asked, aware she was probably walking over very thin ice now.

Ronon sighed, his shoulders dropping "She'd want me to go; she'd want me to move on."

"And what do you want?" she questioned.

"You," was all the response he gave her and it only solidified her resolve to stay with him, to follow him wherever he chose to go.

"You have me," she told him and he finally looked at her, something in his expression that she had never seen before, a softness she'd known was there but had never been able to see. She wanted nothing more than to grab him and kiss him in that moment but she couldn't, not yet at least.

"Not if you get killed," he whispered and she had no response to that, it was true and if she stayed here it would inevitably happen, there was only so many times you could face down death before it finally got you and she was probably way passed the point where it should have beaten her. "I'll go with you," he said after several moments of silence and Teyla looked at him for a moment, she didn't want him to regret his decision. The look on his face told her he had made up his mind, this was what he wanted.

She finally gave into the impulse to kiss him, she pulled his lips to hers, kissing him with far more intensity than their first kiss had held. He kissed her back, his fingers running though her hair as he pulled her closer to him. They finally left the room together; the others were still sat around the couches talking amongst themselves.

"We're coming," Teyla told them and Lorne nodded his head.

"Alright, the train leaves in an hour, everybody pack your things and be back here in half an hour, we'll head to the train station together. We'll be well on our way out of Atlantis by the time it gets dark," Lorne instructed everyone who nodded and started to head out of the apartment to gather their things.


Athos was beautiful, especially in the country side, from the top of the hill you could see for miles, fields and trees and the river, only a few houses scattered though out. The sun was only just rising, sending streaks of orange and pink through the sky as it came slowly over the horizon. John sat on the grass, Elizabeth's head on his shoulder as they watched night turn into day. They'd made a point of watching the sunrise, after being forced to run away from it they intended to enjoy every single one.

They'd been in Athos for almost six months now, coming here was a decision John had never once regretted, he hadn't been sure he would be able to settle into the quiet life of the country side but with Elizabeth here it had been easy. There had been no vampire attacks, in fact after the first few weeks the fear of vampires had gone completely. The information on the cure had been stored away in a dozen different places as well as given to the vampire that had helped to save Elizabeth the day before they had come here, hopefully he'd find a use for it.

"I love you," Elizabeth said, she'd say the words at the most random times as if she wanted to catch him off guard with them. He smiled and tightened his arms around her waist, kissing the top of her head in a way that had become normal for him.

"I love you too," he replied and they fell into silence again as the sun continued to rise. It was almost half an hour before either of them moved, they stood up and headed down the hill, making the short walk back their house. The group had come here and moved into a group of houses that almost seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. In truth the nearest town was only twenty minutes away by car but they all felt safer away from the busy towns and cities, there were no vampires out here.

"Don't you ever get sick of seeing the sun rise?" Teyla questioned as she and Ronon walked up to them, the four of them going into John and Elizabeth's home.

"No," Elizabeth replied simply as she walked though to the kitchen the rest of the group following her.

"Carson took Laura to the hospital this morning for her first scan," Teyla stated, excitement colouring the woman's voice.

"She's bouncing around about that all morning," Ronon groaned and John smiled as Elizabeth got caught up in the excitement of it as well.

"We're gonna be Aunts, what's not to be excited about," Elizabeth stated and the two women started chatting away. Ronon rolled his eyes and John smirked, of all the people he'd expected to struggle to settle in here Ronon had been at the top of his list and struggle the man had. It had taken him a couple of restless months but he seemed to have found his peace here now, seemed to have finally settled and he figured Teyla had something to do with it.

Rodney had taken to inventing all manner of things in his house, people usually stayed away from there for fear of what might happen to them if they go in. Radek was the only one brave enough to venture in there, usually joining Rodney in trying to invent some new power source or something, for that reason Radek was usually the guy they sent in to tell Rodney something or drag the man out of his house to join them all for dinner.

Lorne had been as restless as John when they'd first come here, the cop in him hadn't been able to sit still for long but he too seemed to have found his place here, as well as the brunette in town. Carson and Laura had settled in here the easiest, taking to the country life far quicker than the others and were now expecting their first kid; it was going to get interesting around here.

They were all safe though and that was what mattered more than anything else, safe and alive and happy.

THE END

Authors Note: Wow that was a long chapter and I can't believe that the whole story is over, as usual I don't know whether to be happy or sad about it. A big huge thanks to everyone who has read Crimson Night and an even bigger thanks as well as lots of hugs to everyone who has reviewed, it's you guys who keep me going even when I decide I hate every word I've written, I never really mean it I just go though 'I hate my writing' days. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it!