No place like home
Chapter Four
A/N: It's the final chapter! It's been a great journey, thank you all.
When Elizabeth woke the next morning, eyes opening as a content sigh escaped her, her arm moving to look for the warm body she expected to be next to her. When she couldn't find the unexpected source of warmth, and her memories quickly came flooding back, she sat up, realizing she must have fallen asleep on John as they watched the movie. Feeling guilty, she recognized the extra blankets as the ones from the tent and quickly got up to get dressed, noticing the chill still drifted in Atlantis like a bad fog. Damn McKay.
Walking from her quarters twenty minutes later, she began her journey, surprised to meet John Sheppard exiting his own quarters, only a hallway away from her own.
"John." She said warmly, as he smiled at her.
"Sleep well?" Was all he asked, walking with her own their way to the control room.
"Very. I'm sorry about last night."
"Don't be." He said quickly, surprising her, "I'm just glad you got some much needed rest. You really need to keep better sleeping and eating patterns Elizabeth."
She smiled at his caring tone.
"I'll be fine. Thanks John, the movie, for what I saw, was quite enjoyable."
He grinned, as he rubbed his arms slightly.
"God, McKay said he would have this fixed by now."
"I know, "Elizabeth countered, "I'm going to confront him later."
As they approached the end of the particular corridor where usually they would take the transporter to the control room, the doors began sliding shut on their own accord, cutting them effectively off.
John dived for the still closing door, Elizabeth close on his heels, but the door closed before he reached it, only resulting in his head slamming against the hard metal. Elizabeth grabbed his arm as he shook it off, walking back and forward again, trying to get the door to open. It wouldn't budge. Sealed in a space barely four foot square, John barely had time to blink, as from behind him, in the shadows, a figure emerged and with a quick flick, knocked John into unconsciousness with a wraith stunner.
"Elizabeth Weir." He said coldly, his eyes dead as Elizabeth, shocked, kneeled next to John's prone body. "I don't believe we've met."
Elizabeth glared at him with her best intimidation stare. He looked on unaffected.
"What do you want?" She asked coldly, eyeing the stunner. The man chucked, but it was as if his voice was hollow.
"Don't worry, what is it Sheppard calls you? 'Lizabeth? I just want to see you die. I want the light to fade from your eyes. I want to see your mangled body and know I'm the one who killed you. I just want to hand Atlantis over to the Wraith on a silver platter."
Elizabeth glared at the pacing figure several minutes later, her hands tied behind her back, her only reassurance John who was tied in a similar fashion behind her, his hands pressed against hers and the faint thump of his pulse pushing at her fingertips.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked, watching him lay out several grenades and explosive equipment. He looked at her with a smile.
"You know why. The Wraith are my leaders. It was my mission to take a place in Atlantis and destroy its leadership from the inside. The Wraith will come here at my signal that your people are at it's weakest and cannot fight them back. At that point the Wraith will use the Stargate to go through to your planet and to a rich new feeding ground. And you all will be punished for your insolence."
Elizabeth shook her head.
"We are your people. Not them. You originated on our planet, Earth. All human life did. And now you're condemning your own people to death."
"The Wraith are my people," He hissed, taking a threatening step forward, his eyes glittering with malice, "they will reward me beyond my wildest dreams when I return to report everything has been taken care of."
"They look at you and all they see is food." Elizabeth snarled, her hands working furiously to undo the knots behind her.
John. Please wake up. God John, please, please…please…The man smiled.
"I am not your concern Doctor. Soon you will be dead and I will be gone."
"Don't count on it." She hissed under her breath, the ropes cutting into her hands. The man smiled, approaching her.
"Well, we'll see." And raising his hand, it was all Elizabeth saw before she fell into darkness.
When John awoke, he realised three things.
1). He was tied up.
2). Elizabeth was tied up behind him, her head resting on his shoulder and
3). A man was approaching them, handgun in hand.
"You're the one who murdered the geneticist." John accused immediately, recognizing the man's manic grin. The stranger nodded slightly and John knew he didn't belong on Atlantis, no matter the uniform.
"What do you want?" John asked coldly. The man shrugged.
"To see Elizabeth dead actually. You John Sheppard, if you hadn't have gotten in the way, you might have been spared. But I guess now, your just gravy."
John looked on coldly as he cocked the gun.
"Do you want to call for help?" The man asked, not looking up. "Cry out for your friends? Here." Walking over and inserting the radio in John's ear, he pressed the speak button and watched John watch him suspiciously.
"This is Colonel John Sheppard." John said quickly incase the maniac changed his mind, "Doctor Weir and I have been taken hostage. I repeat. In the sealed off corridor outside our quarters. Send a security team-" He was cut off as the man pulled away the radio and crushed it in his hand.
"Excellent. By the time they get in here, you'll be dead and I will have stolen a 'puddle jumper' to escape. Well done Sheppard."
John stared on coldly, trying to ignore the beat of fear pumping through his veins.
His hands twirled behind him, trying to loosen the bonds confining his wrists, ignoring the cutting as they sliced his skin.
"Time to end this." The man said a minute later, packing some grenades in each corner, attached by string. He was going to kill as many people as he could. John growled slightly, stretching his hands toward the nearest string in hope of setting off the grenades and ending this, before he noticed broken glass to his side. Seeing Elizabeth's broken PDA spilling from her pocket, he thanked whatever god was listening and swiped the ropes against the glass a few times, feeling in satisfaction as the ropes split apart, freeing his hands.
Watching their kidnapper with his back to them tie the last string and pull the last pin, he stood up quietly. He had barely taken a step toward the stunner lying a meter or two behind the man before he spun around, seeing his hostage free and dive tackled him. Head inches from the volatile string that could blow the entire place asunder, the pair struggled. John threw as many punches as he received, before flipping the man over and bringing his elbow down on his neck, watching as the man slumped into unconsciousness. Leaving the man he would like nothing better to kill, he moved to Elizabeth, tipping her so her shoulders and head we're on his lap as he untied her hands and feet, tapping her cheeks slightly in an attempt to wake her.
She had a bruise across her cheek, but apart from that he was glad to see she appeared unharmed.
"Elizabeth?" He asked quietly, as her eyes cracked open slightly. She looked at him.
"Hi." Was all she croaked out. John smiled in relief.
"You know," He said quickly, "I thought we agreed not to keep scaring each other like this?"
Elizabeth shrugged half-heartedly.
"S-Sorry."
John brushed a stray hair away from her face.
"It's okay. Just don't do it again okay?"
She nodded weakly, as around them, the doors slid open and warm air pushed at their faces.
"I think I'm going to hug McKay." John said with a smile as a medic team came rushing through the doors to check them both out, soldiers arriving to drag away the unconscious villain.
"He's d-definitely going to need a pay rise." Elizabeth said with a weak smile as Carson packed her on a stretcher. John smiled fondly.
"Yeah." He kissed her on the forehead, not caring as Carson looked away before she was moved toward the infirmary, but not before a loud triumphant cheer could be heard, and McKay arrived, holding a small mouse in his hands.
"I found him!" He cheered, before seeing Carson and shutting up quickly.
"Uh…Hi Carson. How are they?"
"They'll be fine Rodney. They should get back to normal in a few days." Carson said quickly, a frown on his face, "What are you doing?"
Rodney held up the small brown mouse.
"Oh…uh…just taking your beautiful mouse for a walk. You know, the air does the body good!"
Carson frowned.
"Rodney, my mouse is white."
Rodney sounded like a strangled cat.
"Are you sure?"
Carson nodded.
"Very."
At that, Rodney threw the mice down, watching it scamper away.
"Oh god, I'm going to die from a disease…"
"Rodney," Carson interrupted, "Where's my mouse?"
Rodney coughed.
"Oh look, my hand is going red, I'm going to die! Don't you even care about my wellbeing? Look at me I'm infected!"
John smiled, his last threads to reality slipping as he fell back into the welcoming darkness on his stretcher.
"John, how are you feeling?" Elizabeth asked as John walking into her office and sat down. John smiled and shrugged.
"I'm fine. You?"
"Fine. It's good that everything has slipped back into normality."
"Yeah. Good."John looked around and Elizabeth waited for him to speak. "Did you hear what happened with Carson's mouse?"
Elizabeth shook her head.
"Turns out Radek took it. He didn't know it wasn't one of experimental ones and accidentally turned it green."
"Well," Elizabeth said smiling, "At least it will be harder to mistake for others now."
John grinned.
"So, hungry? I feel like some lunch."
Elizabeth nodded.
"Sure, these reports can wait."
She followed him to the doorway, hands brushing as they smiled at each other.
Normal? There was no such thing.
End.