A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers! Thanks jess( ) for the advice on Beckett's accent! I can see your point. And I understand your feelings for this story, there are too many out there. lol So so so so so so so sooooooo sorry this took so long! Puh-leeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase forgive me!

ch.5 The Truth Comes Out

Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Teyla, Ford, Telly, Alex, and Bates all sat around the hexagonal table in the briefing room.

"So tell us, how did you get Major Sheppard's code?" Bates said to Alex.

"You gave it to me." Alex said to Major Sheppard.

"Excuse me, do you have a problem answering me?" Bates demanded.

"No. If you'd ask nicely I wouldn't have a problem at all." Alex smirked. Bates glared at the younger man.

"Ahem." Elizabeth cleared his throat. "You're Alex?" Alex nodded.

"I don't mean to be bold but, aren't you supposed to be dead?" Alex chuckeled.

"I guess I should explain my- resurection- if you will." He turned to Telly. "That guy is the biggest idiot I've ever met. I don't know how he managed to get a position here. He shot me in the stomach. After you left Doctor Beckett found us. He fixed me up. And Telly, it's over. When everyone found out about everything that had happened, he shot himself. He died." Telly smiled through the tears that had formed. The adults shared glances with each other.

"May I ask who this person is? It could help us to prevent this in the future." Teyla asked.

Telly shook her head furiously. "No way. We can't. What would you do if you knew who it was? Would you lock him up?"

John shrugged. "Well considering what he's done, that is a possibility."

"For what? For planning to do this? Might I remind you this doesn't happen for another two years." Everyone stared at Telly.

"Telly." Alex hissed. Telly flushed bright red. She had just given away when this all starts and when she was born.

"I can't believe I just said that. Me and my big mouth." She muttered. Elizabeth broke the awkward silence that had occurred.

"Alright. Why don't you two get some rest. Major could you find Alex some quarters?"

John groaned. "Uh... yeah, sure." He got up and beckoned Alex to follow him. The two of them left the other six in the awkward silence.

"I'm just gonna go to my quarters then." Telly made a hasty exit. The five adults sat in silence. Each avoided eye contact with each other.

"Well that was awkward." Rodney said. "I'm gonna go- uh- work on getting them home." He got up and left and the others followed suit. Each making an excuse to have to be somewhere.

o00o-----

Alex sat in his quarters. He heard a knock on his door but before he could answer it, Telly came in. She pulled out the chair at his table. She sat down and waved her hand for him to sit back down in the other chair at the table. Telly pulled out the picture she had and handed it to him.

"It's of all of us." Telly said. Alex smiled at it.

"I haven't seen this in years." Telly nodded.

"Yeah well, I thought you should have it. That was our agreement. Since it's the only copy. I have it until I'm seventeen. You have it for the next seventeen years. But since I didn't get a chance to give it to you at my seventeenth birthday, I'm giving it to you now." Alex shook his head.

"No, Telly. I can't take this now. You keep it." He made a movement to give it back.

"No. I've had it and been staring at it for the past three days. And I think you should have it. I think you need it." She said ever so softly. Alex pulled the photo back to himself and looked at it.

"Thanks." Telly smiled.

"No problem." She got up and went to leave the room.

"Telly wait!" Alex put the photo on the table and stood between Telly and the door. "Please Telly, stay." Telly saw the pain and need for comfort in his eyes. Telly nodded. Together they went over to the bed and laid down on it. Telly rested her head on Alex's chest, both content with the other's prescence. They fell asleep in each other's arms.

o00o----

In the morning, Telly woke up and got out of bed carefully so as not to disturb Alex who was still sleeping. She tiptoed over to the desk in the corner of the room and searched for a pencil and a piece of paper. When she finally found them she quickly scribbled a note to Alex and placed it on the pillow he was not laying on and left the room.

She first decided to go to the balcony on the east pier. This balcony was special to her and Alex. They had shared their first kiss on this balcony over three years ago. It had become sort of 'their' balcony since then.

Telly leaned over the rail and let the sea breeze blow her hair back away from her face. She looked at her watch. It read 7:03 a.m. Alex never woke before 7:30 so Telly decided to head to the control room.

Once there, Telly found she had nothing to do. She looked at the control panel and, noticing a device she had never before seen, called over the tech., Peter Grodin.

"Excuse me, sir. What is this?" Peter came over and looked at the device she was pointing at.

"Oh. I'm not really sure. It's funny; it had been just a dormant crystal before that we had yet to determine its purpose but hours before you came, it glowed and the energy spiked. I tried to find out why but I couldn't. I meant to talk to Doctor Weir about it but with you arriving I kind of forgot about it. Surely you've seen it before?" Telly shook her head.

"No. I've never seen it in my life." She fingered the blueish-green circular crystal hooked to the control panel. Telly froze. Her mind replayed the day her family was murdered.

She watched the killings, the running, her step-father dialing the gate. Through her tears she saw him hook a blueish-green crystal to the control panel. He activated it and it glowed. She was pushed through the gate. Telly broke out of her reverie.

"Actually I have. Once." She ran out of the room so fast she knocked a few papers out of the unfortunate people's hands who happened to enter the control room at that time. She apologized profusely but just kept running.

o00o-----

Alex woke early. It was around 7:15 when he got up today. He usually slept for another fifteen minutes. He had dreamt of the day his family was killed again. This was the cause of his early wake up. He was about to go back to sleep when he rolled over onto a piece of paper. He rubbed his eyes, sat up and read it.

Dear Alex,

I have gone to the balcony. You know which one. Please meet me there as soon as you get up. If I'm not there when you get there, I'll be in the control room. Wait for me. I won't be long.

With love,

Telly

Alex folded up the note and threw on his jacket. He knew he was early but he needed to ask Telly something. He decided to surprise her.

o00o-----

Telly ran down a corridor that led to a transporter. As she ran, she looked at her watch. 7:18. Alex would still be asleep. /Oh well\ She thought. Telly had something very important to tell him.

Telly, in her haste, did not see the door to one of the labs open and a scientist come out of it. She ran full force into the unlucky scientist.

"Watch where you're going!" The scientist growled. Telly hastened to pick up the crystal she had knocked out of his hand that now lay in pieces on the floor.

"I'm really sor-" She stopped when she saw who it was she was speaking to.

"Kavanaugh." Telly said with as much ice in her voice as she could muster.

"Can I help you?" He said impatiently.

"Yes. You can stop showing up." Telly replied with even more ice in her voice.

"Sorry. I don't understand." He looked at her with digust and as if she were a waste of his time.

"Everytime I think I get away from you, you show up!" She said, her voice getting louder with each word. "You died. Granted that is in the future. But still. You die and now here you are." Kavanaugh mumbled something unintelligable.

"Look little girl, I don't know who you are, but I don't need some stupid kid telling me to get lost not so subtly. Now if you don't mind, I have to go and see what damage you have caused to this very valuable device." He sneered.

"What damage has been done to it?" Telly raised an eyebrow. "It's broken. That's what damaged has been caused to it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. And FYI, the ten hours you put into studying that were a waste of time. It's a paper weight. The ancients designed it to look like one of their crystals so if anyone stole it they would have nothing. A decoy. If you weren't so self absorbed, you would know that by now. Doctor McKay found a similar one two days ago and determined what it was. Or maybe you did know that but wanted to prove that you were smarter than him. Well you're not! And I don't think Doctor Weir or McKay would appreciate you using the lab in the lower levels of the city to hide your stolen devices that Doctor McKay has put much well-spent time determining their purposes. You just wanted to be the one who found something that my dad missed. Well he doesn't miss anything so are you going to tell Doctor Weir what you've been doing or am I going to have to do it for you?"

With that Telly turned on her heel and left KAvanaugh standing there dumbstruck. /How did she find out? I was being so careful. Wait. Did she just call McKay 'dad'?\

o00o-----

Alex stood waiting on the balcony. Telly burst onto it out of breath. She had obviously run here. Telly grabbed his arm and pulled him back through the door.

"Telly wha-" Alex started.

"Don't- ask questions. Just- come. I- found out- come on!" She demanded. Alex followed without protest into the control room where Kavanaugh stood playing with the crystal Telly saw earlier. Peter was standing behind him disapprovingly.

"Get away from that!" Telly yelled at him. Kavanaugh stared blankly at her.

"You again. Don't you have anything better to do? Ooh! I know! Why don't you go get your daddy to read you a little baby book?" He said the last sentence in a sickly baby voice. He failed to notice the fiery anger behind Telly's eyes.

"Don't go there." Telly growled. He continued, oblivious.

"I'm sure he'd love to read to you from the book he wrote himself. It's called 'I Am a Loser and a Failer and Always Have Been and Always Will Be.'"

Telly stared at him with enough hatred to sink the city. If looks could kill, Kavanaugh would be dead on his back by now.

Maybe Telly lost control of herself because of the years of pain she had from this man. Or maybe it was because he killed her family. Anybody who had been in the control room at the time would have said it was because he laughed after insulting Telly. It was, in fact, all three of the above.

Telly had never hit anyone before this. She had seen Kavanaugh hit her mom enough times for her to despise it. She had dealt with enough from this- this monster in her life to want to kill him. And he had just unknowingly rubbed her entire screwed-up life in her face.

"I HATE YOU!" Telly continued to hit Kavanaugh until someone grabbed her arms and pulled her off him. Telly diddn't know who it was. All she saw was the monster lying cowardly on the floor. Telly felt a sharp prick in her arm and her world went black.

A/N: Hope you like and again I'm sorry this took so long. But I'm having finals this week. But this is the last week of school for me so yay! I won't be able to update for a couple weeks though because I'm really busy and I'm going on a trip at the end of this month. Sniff. While I'm there I'll try to finish the story so when I get back I will just have to type it up. Well I'm gonna stop now because this is going on forever.

A/N2: Oh! And please vote in your review for how I should do the next chappie. Should Kavanaugh be in the infirmary when Telly wakes up or should he have left/been forced to leave Atlantis? Or should he die from Telly beating him up? Please please please review!

A/N3: And if you're good and review quickly I'll try to get the next chapter up before my trip. I think it will be the last.