A/N: Sorry it's been a while, restarted school and my fan fic writing time disappeared down the drain somewhere…I'm doing this while trying to avoid Psych homework…

Also thanks to Nat for helping out with the last scene :-)!

Chapter Fourteen

The planet below them looked just like any other Elizabeth had read mission reports about. Trees, hills, lakes, rivers, rocks, sky…there was nothing at all unusual about it. In fact it looked like somewhere she would have enjoyed going to on vacation while back on Earth, not somewhere she would imagine herself having to go to rescue her friends.

"Oh yeah, we're all going to die," Rodney muttered as Carson landed the jumper in an open patch between the trees, he then froze as he noticed everyone staring at him. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"Well either that or we all just experienced telepathy," Carson replied.

"Well I'm sure you were all thinking it, I was just voicing the opinion," Rodney said.

"Gentlemen, we have a mission to complete," Elizabeth said.

"Right," Rodney said, grabbing his P-90 and leading the way out of the puddlejumper.

There was a man she would never be able to figure out. One minute he'd be whining about dying and the next leading a group of people to a rescue mission P-90 in his hands. Carson she could see the fear in as he walked out of the jumper, but Rodney's face was one of determination.

Dr Kisunagi was nervously fiddling with the handgun she was holding. Elizabeth knew exactly how she felt, she herself was still refusing to even carry a weapon, although the constant nagging that if she was separated from the others she would have no protection was starting to get to her. The temptation to pick up a gun was growing. But it stood against everything she had ever fought for…

But then again so did working with the military and what had she been doing for the past year?

"Ah, Dr Weir, do you not have a weapon?" Kisunagi looked at her questioningly.

"No, I…"

"Get out here…now!" they heard Rodney's voice.

Both of them ran out of the jumper to see what Rodney and Carson were staring at. Three Wraith darts flew over their heads, before breaking off in different directions and heading back around again.

The four of them broke into a run for the tree line without any more communication. Elizabeth looked back once and noted that the jumper hadn't been cloaked. She made a mental note to scold Carson over that one later before running behind a large tree and ducking there. Looking up she could see the canopy completely concealed her from the Wraith darts.

She looked back down to find herself alone.

"Damnit…" she muttered under her breath.

She listened for any sound of movement, but heard nothing. She pressed the button on her radio.

"Rodney, where are you?" she asked.

"I'll throw a stone and see if you can hear it," he said.

A few moments later she heard the 'clunk' of something hitting another tree. She began walking towards the tree the sound had come from…

…only to step onto nothing and fall down extremely fast…

"If you let her go I'll tell you what you need to know."

The second he'd said it he regretted it. If they let her go she would die instantly. She couldn't walk, and she would soon be unconscious again through lack of blood. She wasn't going to survive, not unless the others somehow magically made it there to save them…but who was he kidding? They didn't even know what planet they were on or if they were alive…

"How can we be sure?" the red-haired Wraith asked.

But if she stayed she would also die…

"You let her go and I'm yours, no fighting," he said, breathing in deeply.

Of course he had no plan to say anything to the Wraith, but he would do whatever it took to get Teyla out of there and to safety.

"On one condition…" he turned to face the red-haired Wraith. "You return her to Atlantis…"

"How can you be so sure that the Wraith have not entirely taken over your precious city?"

"I can't…but I can hope," Aiden sighed, looking over at Teyla again.

She was unconscious.

"Please…" he said, sounding too much like begging for his liking, but he had to save her.

This was all their fault that the Wraith had awakened early, that Teyla was even in this situation, and he had to take the torture for her.

"You will tell us what we wish to know?" the red-haired Wraith asked.

He nodded slightly, still watching Teyla. He was worried, her blood was spilt all over the table, the metal spikes still dug through her limbs, and if the Wraith even got it into their heads to electrify that table he didn't even want to think about it…

"I do not believe you…" the Wraith said. "But I will make a deal…you tell us what we wish to know and we will let her go back to your planet."

"At least get her off the god damn table and wrap up her wounds!" Aiden burst out.

The Wraith both stared at him blankly, or at least if they were feeling any kind of emotion or thought they weren't showing it in any way obvious to him.

"She's going to die!" Ford shouted at them. "Don't you understand that?"

"We do not care, little one," the red-haired Wraith replied.

But Ford's eyes had fallen on the Steve-like Wraith. He was looking at Teyla, and for a moment Ford even thought he recognised pity on the Wraith's face.

"I will take her back to her cell and wrap up her wounds, if you tell us what we wish to know we will return her to your planet," the Steve-like Wraith spoke up.

"You'll need to iris code to get through…" Ford replied.

"Then you will give it to us!" the red-haired Wraith spat out. "If we are to get to Earth it is one of the things we will require…"

Ford froze. They had found a flaw in his plan. They would keep Teyla until they had the information they needed, but then she would be nothing more than food to them…if she was still alive.

"If you do not tell us what we need, we will kill her…" the red-haired Wraith replied. "But until we have decided such a time she will remain in her cell."

The Wraith nodded to Steve-like Wraith and he unstrapped Teyla from the table. He slowly pulled out the metal spikes. Ford watched him, attempting to keep his facial expression blank, but he felt himself flinch every time he pulled a spike out, letting the blood flow more freely. He wanted to run to her side and hold her, to tell her to wake up, that he was sorry they were killing her, that he just wanted everything to go back to the way it had been before the Wraith attack…

But he couldn't, it could only make matters worse.

If that were possible.

He watched Steve-like Wraith pick Teyla up and carry her out of the room. He didn't miss her jerk slightly at the Wraith's touch. He felt her pain, he felt a coldness around the Wraith, especially at their touch, but he knew what she felt around them was a hundred fold what he did.

Then he felt the touch of a Wraith on his own shoulder and felt another type of coldness rise inside him. The cold, hard knowledge that this would be his last hours alive, and they weren't going to be pretty…

"Are you OK?"

Elizabeth blinked her eyes a few time, her vision was blurred, not adjusted to the dark light of the underground cavern she had seemingly fallen into. She was aware of the fact she was lying on wet ground, and she was extremely uncomfortable, there was a distinct jarring pain coming from one of her knees, and a duller pain resonating from her back.

"Ow…" she said quietly, rolling onto her side and propping herself up.

That was when she froze.

"Are you OK?" she repeated in her head.

The voice sounded eerily familiar; especially considering it belonged to a dead man…She looked to her right. Standing next to her was an entirely naked John Sheppard. He was standing at an awkward angle to her, attempting to hide his not-quite-so-private parts from her, but it was him.

A surge of emotions rose within her. Was it really him? He couldn't be there, could he? She half believed that he wasn't, that she'd fallen and hit her head – really hard – and now she was imagining him standing in front of her. But she wanted it so badly to be him, she wanted to stand up, to hold onto him and cry her eyes out, to tell him everything she'd been through, how she'd missed him…and she wanted him to do the same back.

But was he even real?

"Do you understand me?" he asked.

What? She thought to herself.

But her mind wasn't focused enough to concentrate on replying to him, it was all mixed up, it hurt too much to think – in fact it hurt without the task of thinking. Ignoring the pain, she stood up slowly, rising to stand next to John.

"Of course…" she replied.

Then another thought hit her. While she was too shocked to even take any notice of it, he was entirely naked. She pulled off her jacket and handed it to him.

"Use this," she replied.

He reached to take it from her and lightly touched her hand at the same time. Her eyes went instantly to his, but he didn't seem to take much notice of it, focusing his attention on their hands rather than her eyes. Taking the jacket from her he tied it around his waist, hiding his manhood from her, making the entire situation slightly less awkward.

She watched continued watching his eyes. It was really him, he was really alive. The physical contact reassured her of that, unless she was still hallucinating from hitting her head…no, this was too real. This was reality.

"You're alive…" she said, quietly, more to herself than him.

He made eye contact now. "Do I know you?"

She froze inside. What?

And then she felt something that she swore could have been her insides breaking in half. He didn't remember her…he didn't remember anything…at the same time she wanted to run away and to hold him. She didn't want to believe he had no memory, yet she wanted to help him to remember.

"Oh my god…" she said, stepping away slightly in shock.

As she stepped back she felt her knee collapsing beneath her, the pain suddenly too much to bear. She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop herself from collapsing, leaning her weight onto him instead of her knee. Instantly the contact with him did something to her and she found herself with her arms around him, holding him. It wasn't until she felt a tear running down her cheek that she realised what she was doing.

She pulled back, only to find him place his arms around her as we ll. It was as though he had given her permission to break down. She leaned against him again, never wanting to let go, feeling so many emotions at once that she was amazed she could distinguish any of them. Her vision became blurred as tears formed in her eyes.

She felt his arms loosen around her and pulled back, wiping the tears form her eyes as she did so.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sounding completely confused.

"Nothing," she lied, hearing her voice as shaky, her weakness annoying herself, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She turned away, walked the couple of painful steps to the side of the stream that flowed through the cave and sat down there. She splashed the water over her face, trying to clear away the tears which were still fighting to come through, before resting her head in her hands. She could see him sit down next to her, watching her curiously. He didn't know who she was, yet he still looked at her in that caring way. She didn't know whether to be happy or depressed.

Did that mean he only looked at her in the way because he looked at everyone that way? Or did he remember some kind of feeling towards her? She didn't know; she wasn't sure she wanted to know…

"Elizabeth…"

The voice came so quietly she wasn't sure if she had imagined it. She looked at John, sitting next to her, staring at her intently.

"Excuse me?" she said, not quiet sure what to think.

"That's your name…isn't it?" he said.

Relief flooded over her. His memory wasn't entirely gone, it was still him inside. A small smile came to her face, so small she wasn't even sure if he could see it, but she could feel it, inside, she felt happier.

"Yes…" she whispered in reply.

"I remember you – I remember…" he stopped and looked away. "It doesn't matter…"

"John…" she said.

He looked back at her. "My name?"

She nodded in reply.

The silence of the cave was suddenly broken by a loud crackling from her radio.

"Elizabeth are you still there?"

John jumped slightly, obviously not sure what the radio was.

"I fell into some sort of cave…" Elizabeth replied. "But I'm OK, it wasn't a long drop…and I found something else…"

"I'm sure it's very important but if we don't get off this rock soon I'm afraid we're all going to die," Rodney said, cutting her off.

"John's here," she said.

There was silence from the radio for a few moments.

"How hard did you hit your head?" came the reply.

"It hurts slightly, but I can assure you I'm not imagining things," she replied.

"Well then we need to get you both out of that cave as fast as possible," Rodney said, still not sounding entirely sure of her claim. "Teyla and Ford still need rescuing…and any longer and so will we…"

"They're in the fortress place…" John said.

Elizabeth looked at him in surprise. "How do you know?"

"If you follow the stream through there it leads you up to the…place," he said.

"The Wraith ship?" she asked.

He shook his head slightly. "Not a ship…it's a building…I didn't leave the safety of the cave because I…wasn't wearing anything…but from what I overheard it's some kind of prison and torture facility…"

"Oh god…" Elizabeth muttered.

"Elizabeth?" Rodney's voice came through the radio again.

"New plan," she said. "You come down here…"

"Ok…" he replied. "I think I need an explanation…"