A/N: Chapter 10 Beta'd by Angw

Elizabeth dismissed John and Teyla as Rodney continued to explain all the technical aspects of the ancient/wraith hive ship. John was pleasantly relieved. While he was Rodney's friend, he really didn't have the same appreciation for all the technical language that Rodney could put into a single explanation. As far as he was concerned, the hive ship was a serious threat, end of story.

He turned to Teyla as they walked to the transporter. "Want to meet down in the gym in..." He glanced at his watch. "...ten minutes?"

Teyla nodded and entered the transporter. "When do you plan to start your expedition to Athos."

John grinned. He pressed the button that would take them to the military quarters. "As soon as I can borrow Rodney's girlfriend."

"Ms. Brown?" Teyla said slowly, unsure.

"Yeah." John motioned for her to step out of the transporter. "She's a botanist. She'll know everything I need for this trip. I'm assuming I can't ask you."

"Correct." Teyla replied. She stopped at her quarters. "I shall meet you in ten minutes."

"See you then." John walked down to his own quarters and grabbed his laptop. He quickly entered a journal entry about the recent events. It was full of mistakes, but he didn't have time. He changed into his sparring clothes, grabbed his pack, and then headed back to the transporter.

This time, he transported to the gym's area. He walked down the hall. He was looking forward to this. He had one nagging doubt that Ronon might be there, but he pushed it aside. Teyla had promised she would spar with him. If Ronon was occupying it, they would simply go elsewhere.

He entered the gym to find Teyla already there. She was alone. He smiled and set his pack down on the windowsill. He withdrew his sticks and stretched. He was ready. He stepped into the center of the gym. "Believe it or not." He said as he placed one stick diagonally across the area in front of his face and the other across the area in front of his chest. "I actually practiced."

Teyla raised an eyebrow. "Then let us see how you have practiced."

John smiled as he deflected her first flurry of strikes. He refrained from shunting, shaving them for later. He played purely defensive, avoiding her by ducking and moving. He parried only when he needed to. Teyla raised an eyebrow.

"See." He taunted.

Teyla attacked with renewed vigor, launching a massive attack that rained the blows upon him. He spun and reversed his grip on his left stick, blocking all her attacks. He then launched into an immediate offensive that knocked her back a few steps. He again refrained from shunting, simply letting his strikes bounce off her sticks.

Over and over, backwards and forwards, they attacked and defended. Neither could gain an advantage. They were both covered with sweat. They were both impressed. John had never seen Teyla fight as she had, and Teyla had never seen John fight back like he did. It was almost as if they had both found an inner strength that they'd never known.

He was reaching to block before she even delivered it. She was ducking before he even began to swing his sticks. They were in a dance, a dance of battle. They were both warriors, but they were bonded by their common strength. John was still saving his shunts. Teyla seemed to be giving her all.

Looking for a possible victory, he shunted aside her left stick and then knocked her backwards. She fell with it, dropping one of her sticks in the process. He didn't wait for her to stand. He closed the gap and shunted aside her last stick before ducking behind her and wrapping his sticks around her neck. He held her in an exact reverse of a scene they'd seen far too often.

John laughed. "How 'bout that? I won."

Teyla relaxed, signaling defeat. "Indeed you have."

He released her. "I'd been saving that move for the entire fight."

"That was the most impressive display of prowess that I have ever seen. Whatever you practiced... it was impressive."

"I could say the same thing for you." John walked over to his bag and pulled the water bottle out. He took a quick drink from it. "You where almost ducking and blocking before I had even started my attack."

"I noticed a similar thing with you."

He offered her the bottle. "Water?"

She accepted it, taking a quick drink. "Thank you."

"I have to say, seeing you defeated is something I never expected to see. Especially not by me." He added with a smirk.

"I told you many times, all you had to do was practice."

"Yeah, guess I just needed to get around to doing it." He smiled. "Not that I didn't enjoy it." He pulled her into a hug before grabbing his pack. "I'd better get going. Gotta kidnap a botanist."

He walked straight to Rodney's lab. Rodney was busy working on some project on his laptop. Cables and other junk was strewn throughout the lab. He walked up to the completely unsuspecting Rodney and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey Rodney."

Rodney jumped, spinning around. "Don't do that." He snapped.

"Can I borrow your girlfriend?"

"What?"

"I need to borrow Katie for an hour of two."

"May I ask why you need to 'borrow' her?"

"She's a botanist... right? I need to pick some flowers on Athos, I figured she'd be the best bet."

"She should be up in her room."

"And where is that?"

"Scientist quarters, room 13. This wouldn't have anything to do with Teyla, would it?"

"Now why would you ask that?"

"I've got four days worth of coffee rations riding on it."

"More of this poll... right?"

"Uhh yeah. You really don't need to tell me. I already know about you two. Elizabeth told me all about it. Was just wondering if you'd care to share with a friend?"

"Fine... guilt me into it. By the end of the week, I'll be married to Teyla."

"Oh no. That means Zelenka wins."

"And that's the only response I'm going to get out of you. Aren't you in the least bit happy for me?"

"Of yeah, of course. I'm sure Ford would be too."

John's smiled died. He missed Aiden. "He's in for a surprise when he gets back." John said grimly.

"We'll find him John." Rodney said seriously. "You know that."

John nodded and walked back to the transporter. He dumped his sparring gear in his room. He then took a shower to wash away the sweat and changed back into his uniform. He walked back down to the transporter and took it to the scientist's quarters.

He walked around the foreign scientist quarters. He rarely walked through this section of Atlantis. He stopped when he got to Katie's room. He knocked on the door. He heard a muffled response followed by a bang. He hoped his wasn't interrupting.

The door opened. "Colonel Sheppard, what are you doing here?" Katie asked.

"Need you to help me pick some flowers on Athos."

"Flowers... are they for Teyla?" Katie asked slyly.

"Don't tell me, you're in on this too." John threw his hands in the air. "Am I the only one who doesn't know about this."

"Probably."

"How long do you need to get ready?"

"Oh... ten minutes or so."

"Then meet me in the gate room in ten minutes." He turned around and walked out of the scientist quarters and down to the armory. There he picked up his standard mission gear, then headed down to the gate room.

He personally felt that the Athosian marriage customs were a little bit extreme, but he was true to his promises. He especially wasn't looking forward to meeting with Jarlin. That sounded like meeting a mother, though he knew Teyla's was long gone. He had promised to do this for Teyla, and he would.

Katie was waiting when he got to the gate room. She had a small cylindrical container slung over her shoulder. She was wearing her expedition jacket and the pair of military boots that she'd been given back at the SGC. "Whenever you're ready Colonel." She said.

John nodded and walked up the stairs and into the control room. "Dial Athos." The civilian gate technician nodded and called up the gate address. He then dialed the gate. John walked back down into the gate room and motioned for Katie to come along. He walked into the wormhole.

He emerged on the other side and found himself looking at a familiar site. The gravel pit on the first planet they'd explored in the Pegasus galaxy. It was the planet in which he'd met Teyla. He'd never forget that day. It was a day that he would always cherish.

"Where are we going?" Katie asked.

"To a temple Teyla showed me a long time ago." John said, taking the lead and walking into the forest. "I've got to pick two flowers that grow near the temple itself. They should be the only flowers in the area so we just need to find two healthy flowers."

Katie nodded. "Okay, should be easy enough. I brought my pack and I filled this..." She held up the cylinder container slung over her back. "...with some water. We'll put them in a vase once we get back to Atlantis."

John only knew the route to the temple from the old Athosian village, so he headed there first. It was a hollow site. The ashes of the one crashed wraith dart were still buried in the decomposed wreckage of the building it had smashed. He still felt guilty. If he hadn't shown up and activated that locket, then the wraith probably wouldn't have come.

He didn't stop in the village, but simply continued to the path Teyla had taken him on. It wound deep into the forest. He stopped at the hill where he'd slipped and fell. He remembered how he'd joked about that for hours with her. He supposed he had fallen for her then, though he would've never admitted it.

He continued until they reached the temple. It was small, built into the side of a hill. Its entrance was barely large enough for a single person to walk into it. Surrounding the entrance was an entire garden of flowers, all identical.

The flowers were short stemmed. They had gold and white petals. The stems were not green, but blue. John had never seen such a flower before. "Never seen a flower with a blue stem." John said.

"Neither have I." Katie pulled out a pair of clippers and got down on her knees. "Will the Athosians mind if I take a few to study?"

"I wouldn't know, but I won't say anything."

Katie clipped four of the flowers and placed them in the container. She stood back up and placed her clippers back into her pack. "That's all we need here, right?"

"Yeah... seems kinda anticlimactic." John replied. He started walking back to the village.

"What else do you have to do?"

John laughed. "I feel like I'm back in high school."

"More like college. Though I never was really good at gossip."

"I have to visit a woman called Jarlin in the Athosian village. She'll interrogate me about my devotion to Teyla."

"Oh, sounds like meeting the parents back on Earth."

"Yeah, but Jarlin's not Teyla's mom, I know that."

"After that?"

"Already completed that one. By accident."

Katie nodded. "Then what?"

"Announce my intentions for all to see. Then I have to fight anyone who objects."

Katie flinched. "Ouch. Do you have to win?"

"Nope. Just have to keep fighting until they say stop."

"Doesn't that whole list sound just a bit, extreme."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to do it." John continued back to the Athosian village and then back to the stargate. Once there, he dialed the gate. Once it was open, he turned to Katie. "Thanks."

"No problem Colonel. I'll put the flowers in a vase and run them by your quarters in a few minutes."

They stepped through the gate.

XXX

John emerged on the other side feeling encouraged, if a bit hungry. He walked to the cafeteria still in full mission gear, P90 still in hand. He grabbed his usual array of lunch foods.

To his surprise, none other than Radek Zelenka sat down. He raised an eyebrow. "Zelenka, what are you doing here?"

"I think you should know that I'm the one who's profiting from this poll that's been going around." Radek said. "Not that I feel guilty. I owe it all to you comrade."

"Yeah. I've been hearing that from people all over the city. First Elizabeth, then Rodney..." John shook his head. "You know how it goes."

"More than you know. I'd better get back to my work."

"Yeah, you do that." John laughed. He finished his food and then decided to go speak to the city. He hadn't done that recently. He made his way to the chair room and sat down.

The chair responded instantly to his presence. He reached out with his mind and felt the city respond. It is good to hear from you again. It said.

"Yeah, I had a lot of things to do."

You have made some peace with your heart Colonel Sheppard.

"I'd like to think that, but I've got a question."

Ask away.

"Did you know that the leader of the order of time was a wraith?"

Yes.

"How is that even possible?"

The wraith do not need to feed on humans to maintain themselves. There are ways to sustain them without the art of feeding. The wraith you speak of, he commanded the ancient gene.

"I thought that wasn't possible."

So did the ancients. They believed that the wraith wasn't fully a wraith but a hybrid. That wraith, was cunning. His name was Eli, or that's what we called him. In his native tongue, we cannot pronounce his name.

"How did he become the leader?"

Through a series of careful manipulations and feedings. We would lose masters and we'd never be able to find their bodies. Eventually, he was one of the few remaining masters. We had no choice, our traditions dictated that the oldest must assume leadership.

"So the order fought in the war with the wraith."

Yes. We tried to defeat them. We even tried to change history. Nothing happened, other than the order's destruction. The last of them, the old man you met, told me all of this. He was the only ancient to remain in this galaxy.

"The rest we know. You slept until we awoke you."

Yes Colonel Sheppard. Do not concern yourself with the order. They had their time. Now is your time. Finish your affairs before you embark upon this quest, for it will demand all your strength to finally stop the wraith.

John didn't reply. He just had a sinking feeling of what was to come. It didn't feel right at all.