MORE THAN JUST PRETTY FACES
By TIPPER

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CHAPTER SIX: DARKNESS

Ronon thought about joining him, knowing Teyla would be more than happy to wake him as well, but she needed rest as well. If she was going to stay here with Rodney, she needed to be awake, which would be hard if she had nothing to occupy her. With this in mind, he turned in his chair to tell her to get some sleep.

But she was gone.

His eyes widened, and he stood up swiftly. It showed the depth of Sheppard's exhaustion that the normally light-sleeping colonel didn't wake up at the movement.

Frowning deeply, Ronon strode over to the stairs and walked up, shining Rodney's fat flashlight into the dark room.

Teyla was standing a couple of feet inside, studying the room with her flashlight. For some obscure reason, the light wasn't penetrating the darkness—it lit about three or four feet in front of her, then the beam seemed to die, without revealing anything.

"What are you doing?" Ronon hissed, his shoulders itching at her disobedience. "Sheppard said—"

"The colonel ordered us not to explore after he left," she answered smartly. "He did not say anything about not doing so while he was still here."

"Teyla," Ronon rumbled ominously.

"There might be something here that can help us," she insisted, taking another tentative step forward into the darkness. "There has to be," she added in a soft voice.

"You're not McKay," the Satedan stated.

That brought Teyla up short, her shoulders hunching slightly. Slowly, she turned, eyeing him over her shoulder.

"I am aware of that, Ronon."

He flexed an eyebrow, "Then why go looking for trouble?"

She swallowed, and looked down at the floor. "Doctor McKay does not go looking for trouble," she said finally, her jaw muscles flexing as if tasting the words she spoke, "he simply rushes into things, and it sometimes gets him into trouble."

Ronon's other eyebrow rose to join the first, as if to say, my point.

She frowned at him, "But other times, it gets him...gets us...what we need to survive and to win the day. He does not hesitate—he jumps into things when he believes it will help us. Never a thought for himself." Her eyes fixed on his, and her chin lifted. "I find that admirable."

Ronon shrugged, "So?"

"So...he is not here right now. We are. And someone needs to at least try and see if there is something here that can help us." She pointed back at the first room, "If it were you, me, or Colonel Sheppard in that room, unconscious and maybe dying, you know he would be in here, searching desperately for something to get us home." Her hand returned to its grip on her P90, and she nodded at him. "I will not do any less that what he would do."

"But," Ronon's brow knotted, "I repeat—you're not McKay. When he starts looking for something, he has a reasonably certainty of finding it, and fast. You don't."

She stared at him, her jaw so tight it looked painful.

"Yes," she said, turning away, "but I can still try."

Purposefully ignoring him, she lifted the weapon in her arms, the beam of the flashlight still not penetrating very far, and took another cautious step forward.

Ronon sighed, lifted his own light...and moved to stand next to her.

"Well," he said, feigning a lazy drawl, "I guess I can try too."

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The tiniest smile touched Teyla's lips, but she didn't look at the former Runner—she was just thankful he was there.

She took another tentative step forward, her brow furrowing. She finally realized that, despite the impression of being in a large room, her flashlight beam was being blocked by something very solid...and large.

But it wasn't a wall. It looked almost diaphanous, but it was also opaque, like trying to see through a black cloud. Frowning, she widened the beam on her flashlight, opening it to the widest aperture, but the thing just absorbed the light more.

Next to her, Ronon had stopped about a foot from the thing, his much wider beam also on its broadest scope. He was shining it upwards, tracing the black stuff up until it met the ceiling. Teyla swung her beam from one side to the other—it filled the entire room like a curtain, blocking them from whatever lay behind.

"What is it?" Ronon asked, stepping back. "And...is it moving?"

"Moving?" Teyla repeated, swinging her beam back to the portion of the blackness in front of her. At the same time, she heard a very faint sound...like the small hiss of an electrical discharge. And the wall of blackness undulated slightly, as if yawning.

Her eyes widened in sudden recognition.

"No..." she whispered, "It can't be." Then corner of her eyes caught movement. "RONON! NO!" she screamed, jumping at him as he reached forward to touch a finger to the black mass.

But she was too slow. He yelped in pain as stinging, burning pain lit his fingers on fire at the same time that she pulled him back, using her full body weight to drag him back to the door.

The energy creature came alive, rippling and billowing like a stretching animal.

Teyla looked back in horror, screaming at him to run. He didn't need to be told twice.

"Colonel!" Teyla shouted, bounding through the door after Ronon and down the steps, "There's an energy—"

BOOM!

The whole room shook with incredible violence, and Teyla screamed. Something just tried to blow open the outside door!

"COLONEL!" she yelled again, trying to see as she fell sharply sideways off the steps, hitting the water-covered floor. In seconds, she was on her feet again, diving for McKay. Hitting him straight on, she rolled them both off the bench and onto the floor, just as the outer door exploded inwards from the force of a Wraith dart blast, shedding metal, light and water everywhere.

She heard Sheppard yell at her to get down, but she was already on the ground, holding McKay to her, trying to keep his head out of the water that was rapidly filling the room.

The room came alive with sound of fire, as stunner blasts flew inside, aiming to hit anything that they could. The Wraith had found them!

Then, suddenly, all the hairs on her body were standing on end, and her skin felt like it was on fire as the energy monster boiled into the room behind her. Without really thinking about it, she sucked in a breath, pressed a hand over McKay's nose and covered his mouth with hers...then shoved both herself and McKay down fully under the now almost foot deep water.

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TBC...

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