Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairing, etc.
Part 37/40
-Chapter 36-
Floodgates
"Everyone, hang on back there!" Sheppard yelled over his shoulder.
Teyla sank down on the floor between the head of the life pod and the wall separating the rear bay from the cockpit. She braced one hand against the floor and the other against the pod, reluctant to lose contact with Ronon – even if there was a cold hunk of metal between him and her. The walls dulled the sounds of great explosions outside, each one making Teyla cringe. Occasionally one would come close enough to rock the cloaked ship, and she was terrified that, at any moment, a shot would find its target. Then the jumper would be destroyed, and all their chances would be forever lost.
Across from her, Illydia smiled thinly. Her long fingers grasped the seat, holding herself steady on the bench. "It will be okay," she said.
Teyla couldn't smile back. "I am the one with the clairvoyance," she whispered. "And I can not foresee. . ." She knew she wouldn't be able to see the others' futures, or even her own, but the fact that she couldn't see Ronon's terrified her. She didn't know what to think.
Illydia grunted when the jumper jerked violently. "You must not cease to believe," she said. "Right now Ronon needs you to believe in him."
She leaned against the pod, splaying her fingers across its surface even as the jumper rocked again. "I want to," she whispered. "So badly."
"Then do so," Illydia said firmly.
"We're coming up on the cave!" Sheppard called from the cockpit. "I'm going to try to take us in – be prepared for a jolt!" In a softer voice, Teyla heard him tell Weir: "Dial the Ring! We may not have a second chance at this."
Teyla tucked herself a little tighter into the corner and closed her eyes. "We will survive, we will survive, we WILL survive," she muttered to herself. From her fetal position, she awaited the horrifying jerk – and the terrible explosion sure to follow.
Instead, she heard three sharp gasps from the cockpit. Her eyes sprang open, and she leaned forward to see what was going on.
Beyond the windshield she could see the yawning mouth of the cave. But something was wrong with it; its shape was slightly different from normal. More oval than perfectly round. . . Squinting, Teyla leaned forward a little more, then fell back in surprise with a gasp of her own when she realized what was happening as the jumper advanced into the cave.
In the flickering light of the Ring, Teyla saw the cave walls writhing and twisting as if alive. As the little ship inched its way farther and father into the cave, closer to the Ring, the walls were adjusting their shape to accommodate the unusually-shaped jumper.
"Uh-oh," Sheppard said presently. Leaning in close to the controls, he activated the radio. "Mayday, mayday," he cried. "Atlantis, this is Colonel Sheppard. We are coming in hot: Repeat, we are coming in hot! Have a medical team on standby!"
"What—?" Teyla began.
Illydia glanced at her. "There is a Wraith Dart following us," she said grimly. "It is directly behind us, making its way through the cave before the walls can retake their previous form." She pointed to the HUD.
Teyla swallowed hard, hoping there were no more ships behind that. "Will we make it?"
"We will," the Queen responded. "Faith, Teyla. You must have faith, remember."
She was having a little bit of trouble with that concept at the moment, but Teyla swallowed back her arguments and returned to her fetal position in the corner, her back braced against Ronon's life pod. "Hang on, my betrothed," she whispered. "We will make it."
The Ring swallowed the jumper then, and for a moment she free-fell through space, a jumbled prayer paused on her lips. The rest of it tumbled free the moment they were on Atlantis, her words mingling with Weir and McKay's screamed: "Pull up, pull up!" and Sheppard's, "Shield!"
Teyla covered her ears as the horrendous screech of metal on metal sounded close by. The jumper jolted roughly, nearly shaking her loose. She moaned, expecting at any moment to feel the jumper come apart around her. The sound faded a little, so slowly she didn't notice it at first. Then, with a soft thud, they stopped moving.
She dared to raise her head and open her eyes, meeting Illydia's stunned gaze from across the thin walkway. "What happened?" the Queen asked in a hoarse voice.
McKay squeaked as Sheppard burst out: "That was cool!"
Weir appeared in the doorway, seeming to be quite shaken. "I believe that is the closest call. . ." she said wonderingly.
The rear hatch began to open as Sheppard appeared behind Elizabeth's shoulder. "It was awesome!" he almost yelled. "We came through the Ring, the Dart right behind us! I called for the shield, but one of the Ancients up in the control room manually shut down the Ring, and the Dart was cut in half!"
Teyla blinked rapidly. "There's a Dart in the city?" she questioned. She didn't remember the room that housed the Ring being that big.
"Half a Dart," John corrected. "The rest is stuck in the Ring, I guess."
"It'll cease to exist the next time we dial out," McKay whispered shakily. "Just half the Dart – I wonder if the Wraith is still alive. . ."
Illydia rubbed her forehead. "Not for long," she said grimly. "He tried to activate his self-destruct, but the security teams shot him. He will die of his wounds shortly."
At that moment the sound of gurney wheels rattling up the jumper's ramp drew everyone's attention in that direction. "What's goin' on?" Beckett demanded.
Teyla, relieved to see the kindly, trustworthy doctor again, scrambled to her feet. "The pod," she said, resting her hands atop it. "Ronon is in there – he is. . ." She trailed off.
"He may require medical attention," Illydia stated calmly.
Carson gently steered her out of the way as McKay pressed buttons on the pod to open the lid. The team Beckett had brought with him commenced to ready equipment, just in case. Teyla didn't know the names of over half of the machines, nor their functions, but she had faith in Carson and his team. If anyone could save Ronon, it would be Carson Beckett.
Teyla, shuffled to the back of the suddenly over-crowded jumper, failed to see the next sequence of events. It was not until Beckett and his medical team had vanished, emptying the jumper a little, that she saw the open and empty life pod and the worried looks on everyone else's faces. "What?" she whispered.
McKay awkwardly patted her shoulder. "He'll be fine," he said, his words sounding faintly mechanical to her anxious ears.
Sheppard offered her a wan smile. "It can't be that bad," he said, trying for reassurance. "I've known him for years – he's a tough guy."
Illydia quietly withdrew, a thoughtful expression on her face. Teyla hardly noticed. "What happened?" she begged.
McKay, Sheppard, and Weir exchanged uneasy glances. "Tell me!" Teyla demanded.
Elizabeth stepped forward to touch her arm gently. "He coded the moment Rodney brought him out of stasis," she said. "He wasn't breathing, and his heart stopped."
Teyla felt the tears beginning to burn at the back of her eyes.
"Wait!" Sheppard exclaimed. "There's more," he assured her.
"Beckett got him back just as they reached the bottom of the ramp," Elizabeth said. "But he's in critical condition. He's being taken straight to the emergency section of the infirmary, to see if they can diagnose what exactly is wrong with him."
Hands curling into fists, Teyla numbly ground her teeth. "I know what is wrong with him," she said. "He is too – too blasted chivalrous and selfless! He should never have helped me! I saw this happen! But I could not stop it!" Frustrated, she shoved past the others and ran out of the jumper, blindly making her way through the dizzying massiveness of the ship bay of Atlantis.
"Wait!" Sheppard caught her up on the stairs. "You don't know where you're going," he said softly. "I'll take you to the infirmary."
Teyla allowed herself to be led through the light, airy halls of Atlantis, Weir and McKay silently trailing behind her and Sheppard. But she was blind to the beauty around her, her mind was so focused on Ronon's plight. She knew he was still alive – she'd feel it deep inside her if he wasn't. But beyond that, she didn't know how he was faring.
One of the doctors under Beckett's command checked the four for injuries and declared them all healthy. After that, all they could do was wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Teyla sat in a chair slightly removed from the other three, legs curled up to her chest, arms wrapped around her knees. She needed a shower; to eat; to drink; to sleep. But she didn't dare leave the waiting area, or even close her eyes. She felt to do so would be giving up on Ronon, and she couldn't do that. Hours passed in a maddeningly eternal monotony, colored only by the whispers of John, Elizabeth, and Rodney. None of them tried to draw her into a conversation, knowing they would get no response. She was too fixated on Ronon. Briefly, in the moments between wanting to cry herself into oblivion or scream and throw something, Teyla wondered where Illydia had gone. After she'd slipped out of the jumper, the Athosian had lost track of the kindly Queen.
When at last the doors to the infirmary swished open, Teyla thought she was dreaming. She'd been drifting in and out of a dazed state for quite a while, and thought this was another of her daydreams.
But when Beckett came to kneel before her, kind blue eyes wide with sympathy and sadness, she knew she wasn't dreaming. Her gut tightened. The floodgates of her mind opened and gushed a deluge of images into her mind – another vision of Ronon's future. Her eyes filled with tears.
Carson rested a gentle hand on her knee. "I'm sorry, lass," he whispered. "There's nothin' I can do for him."
-To Be Continued-