DISCLAIMER: I do not own this show, or these characters; I just borrow them.

Weathering the Storm Part 13

Teyla heard Dr. Weir's breathing slow, signifying sleep. She pulled a chair over next to the head of the bed and worked on finding a comfortable position for the night. The best position she could find was facing Elizabeth with her knees pulled up to her chest. She sat there for awhile watching her friend sleep, but soon the silence started to get to her. The only sound in the room that she heard was breathing, however her thoughts worked on filling the silence. 'Oh I see," Elizabeth started to voice her thoughts, "I'm your chance at redemption." Her voice started to get louder as she verbally assaulted Teyla. "Great another rape victim to try and 'help' get through their terrible ordeal. Another chance for Teyla to not screw up.' Elizabeth's words hurt more than she let on. In fact they were partially true; she did screw up by not comprehending the facts that were right in front of her at the time.

FLASHBACK

The last three months had been hell for Teyla, but more so on her friend, and her friend's family. Ariena was grief stricken over learning that she was with child. That sadness compounded with her emotions over the rape itself. One minute they would be dealing with a sobbing wreck of a person, and the next minute she was lashing out verbally or physically at whoever was nearby.

Today Teyla was walking into Ariena's bedroom in order to inform her that she would not be able to come around in the next couple of days. Never in her life had she appreciated the feeling that the Wraith were on their way. While she worried for her people, she was glad to have an excuse for a few days away from the misery that surrounded this room, and her bedridden friend. "Ariena," Teyla stated as she grasped her friend's hand. "The Wraith are coming," Teyla thought she saw a flash of fear behind Ariena's eyes, but whatever Teyla thought she saw was gone momentarily. "I need to go monitor the evacuation of our people into the caves, but I will be back to get you personally. I'll see you in a couple of days," Teyla squeezed her hand as she stood up. There was no response from Ariena…Teyla had stopped expecting any.

END FLASHBACK

A few days later when Teyla went back for her friend, all she found was a note. Teyla realized that the flash of fear behind her friend's eyes was actually gratitude. Ariena had determined at that moment that she finally had found a way to escape her pain. It was right in front of Teyla, but she had missed it. She put her people above her friend. And while at times she knew it was the sign of a good leader, she also knew that there were times when the burden of leadership needed to be placed on another's shoulders so that you could help out one. As she wiped the tears away, she vowed that she would not make the same mistake twice.

Sleep finally came to Teyla; however she was shortly woken up by the sounds of struggling. As she came to, Teyla noticed that Elizabeth was tangled in her sheets and trying to get out. She moved over to the bed and sat on the edge of it. She reached out a hand to brush some sweat away from Elizabeth's forehead. "Shhh… It's okay… your safe here," she calmly whispered soothing nonsense as she worked on untangling her friend. Elizabeth quieted down and was soon sleeping peacefully once again.

Teyla stayed where she was for a few minutes glancing down at her friend, "I promise you, I will not let you down if you need me." She moved back over to her chair and the next time she woke up it was to the sunlight streaming in the room, and Elizabeth standing over her dressed and ready for the day.

"I didn't want to wake you. I thought you might need the sleep. Although it does not look like you had the most comfortable place to sleep," Elizabeth stated with an apologetic look.

"Trust me, I have had worse," Teyla chuckled as she stood and stretched.

"I need to go see how the work for repairing the city is going. If you want to clean up you know where the bathroom is," Elizabeth stated uncomfortably as she did not know how to be the gracious host in her own room. She was not used to being placed in this type of situation.

Teyla smiled at Elizabeth's nervousness, "No I should go get changed myself, and check up on how Halling and the others are fairing."

The two of them started toward the door. As Elizabeth was about to key the door open, she paused and looked at Teyla, "About what I said yesterday… I didn't mean it. I truly am sorry."

Teyla gently touched her left arm, "I know."

Elizabeth could see from the look in Teyla's eyes that she was being truthful; they smiled at each other as the door was opened. Then they both went their separate ways.

As Teyla was wandering the halls of Atlantis for some sign of her friend Halling, her mind started to wander away on its own accord. Her thoughts jumped from her confrontation yesterday with Dr. Weir, to her hatred for the man that wounded Elizabeth on so many levels. At least this situation was easier to understand emotionally than the ordeal with Ariena.

FLASHBACK

Teyla was getting ready for bed. The evening had descended on the village for quite some time; however the trade negotiations with their new friends the Brekna went longer than expected. Her head had just grazed the pillow as someone pounded on her door.

"I'm coming," Teyla stated as she jumped out of bed and hurried toward the door that was still shaking with the force of the pounding. She opened the door to see the haggard features on Jarin's face; Teyla knew that something was wrong with his daughter, and her best friend, for him to come to her in this state.

"Please come quickly," he commanded and started to rush back towards his home without waiting for a reply, or to give more information to the bewildered Teyla. Granted what she had heard and seen was more than enough to send her scurrying after Ariena's father without even taking the time to put on her slippers.

Teyla rushed into her friend's house to see Ariena huddled up in the corner of the common room. Teyla watched her friend shy away when anyone tried to come near her, saw the bruises on her face, and the tattered rags that earlier today had been a beautiful outfit. While Teyla was grateful that she could try to help Ariena out as a friend, she also knew that she was here as a leader to her people. As Teyla knelt down a few feet in front of Ariena, she wondered if the Brekna would still be willing to trade with her people once she asked for them to hand over the perpetrator that was in their midst. She knew that one bad person in a community did not make the community as a whole evil, but she did need to protect her people from the monster that had hurt her friend.

"Ariena," Teyla whispered gently to her friend to let her know that she was near. "Will you tell me what happened so that we can help you?" The silence hung in the air for a good amount of time, and Teyla was about to give up on getting a response when she heard a muffled, "Why would he do such a thing? Why would he hurt me? What did I do to deserve this?" The sobs that followed the quiet questions almost sent Teyla into tears, but she knew that her emotions would not help out the current situation.

"I don't know why anyone would want to hurt you, but you did nothing wrong. It was his fault for hurting you. You did NOTHING wrong," Teyla reemphasized the words that she knew her friend needed to hear.

Ariena moved her head to glance as Teyla, and Teyla noted the glazed stare that bore into her eyes in order to determine if she spoke the truth or not. "Then why did he do this?" Ariena's voice started to get louder as her anger come forth. "I have always been nice to him, especially after his wife and children died so WHY DID HE DO THIS?" her shouted words drowned out the shocked gasps that issued from all those around her.

Teyla came to the sickening realization that she had come to the wrong conclusion earlier, and she disliked where her current thoughts were taking her. "Who hurt you?" Teyla asked again. While she was pretty sure of her friend's attacker, she needed to be absolutely sure that her thoughts were now on the right track.

"Gorand," the whispered words seemed to reverberate through the small room.

END FLASHBACK

Teyla was so caught up in her memories that she did not she the person who was in front of her. She was knocked literally from her thoughts as she collided with Major Sheppard.

"Whoa, what's on your mind to get you this distracted," John asked.

"Nothing…and everything," Teyla cryptically answered.

"Oh-kay, well that explains everything…and nothing" John replied back. "Well if there is anything I can do to help with …everything… you let me know."

John started to walk past Teyla, but he was stopped with a few words, "Actually Major, would you be willing to spar with me. I could use the practice… and a chance to work out some of my thoughts."

Teyla was not one to ask for favors, and when she did it was always something of great importance. Therefore John could not help but replying as a friend, "Sure, I'll meet you in 10 minutes."

"Thank you," she replied as she walked away. John could tell that within a few steps her thoughts were back to wandering away from these halls.

Teyla quickly went to her room to change into her sparring outfit, and to grab her equipment, but these actions failed to keep her thought occupied as she hoped. It was odd to see how quickly she could say she hated Kolya for what he did to Elizabeth, while her thoughts were still conflicted over what to think when she remembered her friend mentioning that her attacker was a comrade and person that Teyla had always looked up to for as long as she could remember. Teyla knew that she hated what Gorand did to Ariena, but could she forget all that she had known about the man over one action. He was not a violent man, but just a grieving widower and father.

Teyla was angry at herself for thinking those thoughts that she knew many in the community also felt. 'He was overcome with his grief, and so he struck out at the world.' But the world only comprised her friend, and her friend did not use the excuse of her attack to go harm someone else. If everyone would act like that then the world would be a dreadful place in which to live.

So do I really hate Kolya, or just his actions… and do I hate Gorand's actions, or the man. These thoughts still swirled in Teyla's mind as she joined John.

"All men are swine," Teyla stated as she and John were getting ready to practice their fighting techniques.

"Actually the saying is 'All men are pigs'," John stated with a grin trying to lighten the mood. He looked up to see the rage on Teyla's face, nope, that didn't help, he thought. In fact she seemed more upset now then when she came to him asking for a sparring partner. He could see that she needed to vent some feelings, but now as they got closer to fighting, John wandered about why he said yes, and also how much pain this fight was going to cause him.

The sparring began, however Teyla started to fight automatically as her mind again started to wander away from the fight.

FLAHSBACK

Teyla and Ariena's family heard the name of the attacker, and they did not know what to think. The shocked looks on their faces were visible to all those in the room, and Ariena assumed the worst when she saw them. "You don't believe me," the pitiful sob brought the others back from their musing and into the room. They realized how their shocked expressions were seen by Ariena.

Teyla was the first to regain the use of her voice, and so tried to placate her friend, "No, we do believe you. We were just shocked is all." Out of the corner of her eyes, Teyla could see Ariena's family nodding, but she did not move her gaze from her friends face. "Please believe me, we were just shocked. I'm sorry that our shock hurt you." Teyla noticed that Ariena had lifted her head from her knees and was gazing at her. Therefore Teyla asked the question that she knew would hurt her friend. She asked her to relive her nightmare. "Will you tell me what happened before I go question Gorand?" Teyla noticed the slight shiver her friend gave when her attacker's name was mentioned, but she was relieved at the strength of Ariena as she started to tell her tale.

Once Ariena was finished with her account of the attack, Teyla asked her family to get her cleaned up and bandaged while she went to find Gorand. She searched for over an hour before she finally found Gorand at the grave sites of his wife and children. She noticed the dark stain underneath him before she was close enough to notice that the stain was a puddle of blood. She saw his clenched hand around the dagger that was protruding from his chest. His other fist was clutching an apology letter to his wife and Ariena asking for forgiveness.

Teyla was upset that he was gone. She knew that she would miss the man that she used to go to for advice. But for the most part, she was upset that he was gone so that she could not get an explanation from him about why he did what he did. She wanted to know how he could so something like that. She knew that he was grieving his family, but he was always kind to people even after his lose. She couldn't understand what happened, and she regretted that she would now never know.

END FLASHBACK

"What did I do to deserve this." John asked as he continued to parry her attacks, his thoughts chuckled at him, Your a man… and therefore swine. Her swings kept getting stronger, and John wondered what was going on. "Teyla?" he questioned as he rolled under her arms before they could hit his chest. However his move cost him the advantage, and Teyla was posed over him with his fighting sticks before he had a chance to recover. As her fighting stick came toward his head, he yelled, "TEYLA!"

He noticed the realization flicker in her eyes about what she was about to do. She quickly shifted her weight to avoid hitting the Major and went down hard from the forward momentum. John reached out his arms in order to try to cushion her fall.

They both lay on the floor panting and covered with sweat. Once John got his breathing and emotions back under control, he rolled over so that he could look at his teammate. "What was that about?" he asked hotly.

"I'm sorry. I let my anger get away with me," Teyla said looking upset at her lack of control.

"Who are you angry at," John asked hoping to help out his teammate in this less painful way, at least physically.

Teyla replied, "I'm upset with Kolya, and what he did to Dr. Weir… and Dr. McKay," she added quickly so that Major Sheppard would not be suspicion as she singled out Elizabeth. Part of her anger was directed toward Gorand, but she could not mention him without John wondering why these memories surfaced now. While she could come up with an excuse, like the anniversary of her friend's death, it was easier on her part to just state Gorand's name to herself.

"First, Kolya was not the only person in the city. So was Sora," John stated as he was still upset with her and having her in the city. "Plus that was one man, how did we all end up being swine," he smiled at her while massaging his neck.

A slight grin lit up Teyla's face followed by a chuckle. "Thank you my friend…for you words, and for the practice."

"No problem, glad to help. But next time can you practice on someone else if you want to kick someone's ass… because it hurts," he replied as Teyla helped his to stand up, and they went to go pick up their equipment.

"I'll think about it, but it is so much fun to kick yours," Teyla smiled as they walked out the door.

AN: I'm sorry for the delay in writing—but this chapter came about from some person issues in my life right now- I learned that a professor that I looked up to was arrested for importuning minors on the internet. I have looked up to him as a professor, but also as a person as I see him juggling work and his family well—but now I'm conflicted and have no clue what to think about him anymore—but I still can't say I hate him—just his actions. I wanted to ask him about why he did what he was accused of however by the time I learned of his actions and got the nerve up, he was off campus with the instructions that he couldn't have any contact with students or the school.

Lately I've also dealt with my niece being hurt by a relative who I did not know—and the minute I heard what he did—I hated him—maybe just the actions—but as that was all I knew of him—I hated him.

So this chapter took a little more time as I tried to straighten out my thoughts—which I think still came out jumbled. Thanks for still reading this story even though the updates are not always in a timely manner.