Thanks again for all of the great reviews! I love 'em.
Anyway, here's the next chapter. Oh yeah…I added in a little bit of Shep Whumpage for those of you who asked for it. Enjoy. :)
The Prime Minister's guards escorted them onto the ship. John noticed that the long walk had tired Elizabeth, so he moved closer to her. She leaned against him, and he placed his arm around her for support. As Elizabeth felt the warmth of his body, she melted into him. She was cold, tired, and her side was aching. She needed rest.
John's mind was working in overdrive, formulating a plan to get them out of this situation before they were taken by the Wraith and locked away, unable to escape. If Rodney and Ronon had been successful in uploading the virus, they wouldn't have much time to get off the ship before the power supply overloaded.
They were sandwiched between two groups of guards. John looked back at Lorne, signaling him silently. Lorne nodded in understanding. He and his men would try to take out the guards at the rear of the group. John and Teyla would hit the guards in front.
John looked down at Elizabeth again. She was breathing hard and stumbling from time-to-time. When she realized that he was watching her, she looked up to meet his worried gaze. He looked into her eyes, and she found herself desperately trying to gain strength from him.
He wanted to pick her up in his arms so she wouldn't have to walk any further, but now wasn't the time. Instead, he discreetly put his finger to his lips, removed his arm from around her waist, and motioned for her to move behind him. Elizabeth looked concerned, but she trusted John completely, so she consented.
John and Teyla deftly moved up behind the guards, slowly closing the distance as they walked through the hallway. When the time was right, they struck out.
The first two guards went down easy – they didn't see it coming. The other guards turned to fight. John was close enough to knock the gun out of the hand of the guard standing next to him. It landed on the floor and slid out of reach as John began to pummel the soldier. Meanwhile, Teyla was exchanging blows with another one of the guards.
In the rear, Lorne's team was gaining ground in their fight against the remaining guards. However, there were too many of them to control. One guard started to fire, which sent Rodney running for cover. Elizabeth and Carson crouched down against the wall to avoid the gunfire. Phillips got hit and went down. Three guards rushed forward. One grabbed Teyla from behind, putting her into a chokehold. The other two went after John. He freed himself from the grasp of first guard and lunged for one of the guns that had fallen on the ground.
As he landed on the ground, he felt a violent kick to his ribcage. He winced in pain, but kept reaching toward the gun. He grabbed it and spun around to face the guard that had kicked him, then he fired.
It was chaos. John looked around wildly trying to get a grasp of the situation. Teyla was losing her battle. Lorne and his men were struggling to gain control. And then he saw her – Elizabeth. The leader grabbed her by the hair and jerked her up to her feet. He quickly placed a gun to her head.
Looking directly at John, he said in a commanding voice. "Drop it…or she dies." As quickly as the commotion started, it came to a halt as everyone realized that Elizabeth's life was in jeopardy.
The soldiers trained their weapons on John. Teyla was still detained, and Lorne was the only other one who had managed to obtain a weapon. Once again, they were outgunned.
"I mean it…drop your gun now!" he demanded.
John clenched his jaw, looked at Elizabeth's wide eyes, and slowly dropped his gun.
The leader shoved Elizabeth down to the floor. John lurched forward to shield her from the fall, but the guards grabbed him and prevented him from helping her. John felt anger rise inside of him, but he quelled it knowing that the anger would only cloud his judgment.
He watched curiously as the leader bent down reverently to look at the guard that John shot and killed moments earlier.
"Friend of yours?" he said inquisitively.
"He was one of my best men," he stated flatly, and then looked up at John. "You will pay for this."
He nodded to his guards and stood slowly. They strengthened their grip on Sheppard's arms, ensuring that he would not be able to break away. The leader walked up to John and rammed him squarely in the face with the butt of his gun. John recoiled from the blow, feeling searing pain tear through his head. He licked the blood off his lips and then looked directly into the eyes of his attacker. His face was blank, showing no emotion.
"Pay for what?"
"If it weren't for our deal with the Wraith, I would kill you right here Colonel," he said striking a vicious blow to John's stomach, followed by another blow to the face. John reacted to the hot sting of pain in his stomach and face, but he refused to cry out. He took a deep, cleansing breath, tried to straighten up and responded, "Why don't you just let us go, then we can forget about all of this and try to be friends?"
"You aren't going anywhere until we find out more about where you came from," he responded hitting John in the gut repeatedly. John felt his knees weaken as he struggled to breathe.
"Stop it!" Elizabeth cried out. "Please." Her voice cracked, and her eyes were filled with tears. It was the first time she had seen him beaten ruthlessly, and she couldn't stand to watch it. It was tearing her up inside.
The leader chuckled and nodded to the men holding John. They released their grip on him, and he crumbled to the ground. The leader stood over him, spit and landed a final kick directly into John's ribs.
Elizabeth rushed to John's side as he lay on the ground reeling from the throbbing pain in his side. He was coughing, and his breathing was ragged. It troubled her to see him this way.
Elizabeth put her hand on his shoulder, "John, are you okay?" she whispered looking into his pain-filled eyes. She was scared, and he could see it. He struggled to push through the pain and recover. In her fragile condition, he didn't want her worrying about him.
"He'll be fine. Now, get up," The leader ordered coldly.
Teyla jerked free from the grasp of the guard that was holding her. She glared at the soldiers as she helped Elizabeth get John to his feet.
"We are so dead," said McKay pacing back and forth.
"Calm down McKay."
"Oh, excuse me for being upset, but if you truly understood how screwed we are, you wouldn't be telling me to calm down!" Rodney whispered fervently. "We have less than 30 minutes to get out of here, create a distraction and get through the gate before this ship goes up in a massive explosion which, I might add, will destroy...oh, about half the planet, along with the stargate."
"Let's find out where they took 'em, and then we can all get out of here together."
Rodney looked up at him hopefully, "Do you have a plan?"
"Yes"
"Well…what is it?"
"Find them, and get out of here together," he replied.
"Oh, that's very funny. That's not a plan. We need to…"
Ronon put his hand up, "Just follow me, McKay. And try to be quiet."
John and Elizabeth were sitting side-by-side. His body was still throbbing from the beating, but he had mostly recovered. Elizabeth was relieved that John was alright, but she could feel herself growing weaker by the minute. She rested her head lightly on John's shoulder and sighed softly. John knew he needed to get her to safety soon. He and Carson exchanged worried glances, but there wasn't much the doctor could do until they were free.
John looked around the small holding cell, and wondered how much time they had left.
"All right, we need to find a way to get out of here and through the gate before this thing blows up. Any ideas?"
"Colonel, we could try cutting into the wall near the control panel as we did before. I have a knife which they did not take," Teyla stated.
"Good. It worked last time. Let's try it again," he said getting up slowly and moving toward the front of the room. He pointed at a spot near the control panel which was located on the wall outside their cell. Teyla paused, aimed carefully, and then threw the knife.
It stuck in the wall, close to its intended location, but nothing happened.
"Anyone else got a…" before he could finish his statement, Lorne and his men were pulling out their knives. John smirked, remembering the rule that Ford had reminded him of months earlier in a similar situation, "One for them to find…"
"..and one to keep," Lorne finished the statement, then stood and gathered the small collection of knives. He handed them to John, who started throwing them at the wall, hoping one of them would hit something that would trigger the unlocking mechanism of the door.
Ronon and Rodney moved stealthily through the hallways. Rodney's breathing was erratic. He was jumpy and nervous. Every noise startled him. And, to make matters worse, time was quickly running out.
Ronon thought he knew where they were being held, so Rodney followed behind him, trying his best to keep up.
Suddenly, Ronon stopped.
"What?" questioned Rodney.
"Shhh" Ronon whispered. He sensed something and was listening, waiting for it.
Then, Rodney heard it too -- footsteps. They were coming from up ahead. Ronon shoved Rodney into the wall. They pressed themselves into the corner, trying to hide as the footsteps came closer.
Rodney held his breath, not wanting to give away their location. As the Wraith approached, Ronon stepped out swiftly into the hall.
"What're you doing?" McKay screamed.
Ronon violently attacked the Wraith and threw him down onto the floor. Then, he pulled out his gun and squeezed the trigger. He looked over at Rodney who was staring at him in shock.
"Come on…we're almost there."
Rodney followed slowly, looking over his shoulder at the dead Wraith.
When he caught up with Ronon again, he rebuked him, "Oh, that's just great! Why'd you have to do that? If they find him, they're going to know something's wrong and come looking for us."
"Hopefully, we'll be gone by then. Besides, he deserved it. They all do," said Ronon irritably.
Sometimes, Ronon was a loose canon. It was hard for him to control his hatred for the Wraith. He wanted all of them to die, and he was happy to be the one who sent them to their deaths.
They walked along in silence for a few more minutes. Finally, Ronon looked over at Rodney and pointed ahead. "The holding cells should be up there on the left."
Rodney quickened his pace, moving ahead of Ronon. He was the first one to turn the corner and enter the room.
When he walked into the holding cell area, he felt a rush of air as a sharp object passed right in front of his face. He screamed, covering his head and crouching down on the floor as the knife narrowly missed his head and stuck into the wall behind him.
"McKay?" said Sheppard. "McKay…you can get up now."
Rodney slowly uncovered his head and stood up, "What are you doing? You could've killed me! Did you see that? It was just inches from my face. If it had been any closer…"
"Rodney…just get us out of here." Sheppard said impatiently.
He turned around. The wall was full of knives near the control panel. "What were you doing?"
John put his hands on his hips and responded with a smirk, "Just a little knife throwing practice,"
Rodney shook his head in disbelief. "What would you people do without me," he muttered as he started to work on the control panel.
As the doors opened, a loud alarm began to sound. John looked over at McKay. "Rodney, what did you do?"
"Why are you looking at me?" he said clearly insulted. "I didn't do it. If it weren't for me, you'd still be in there throwing knives at the wall." Then Rodney realized that the Wraith Ronon killed earlier had probably been discovered. His face went white.
"Oh, crap," he said glancing over at Ronon.
"They are coming," said Teyla.
Ronon looked at John, "We need to get out of here, now."
John ran to the back of the cell where Elizabeth was sitting. He gently helped her to her feet, slipped an arm around her waist and led her out of the cell. He looked at Ronon, "Which way?"
Ronon and Teyla were in the lead.
John glanced back at Rodney. "Were you able to upload the program?"
"Yes, and if you hadn't been captured, we'd be off this ship by now."
"Take it easy, McKay. How long do we have?"
Rodney glanced down at his computer, "15 minutes and counting."
"See…that's plenty of time," Sheppard responded.
He looked down at Elizabeth who was struggling to keep up with their pace. Her face was pained and her hand was resting on her ribs. They were hurting. He wanted to slow down to make it easier for her, but they didn't have time. He still had to figure out how they were going to get through the gate before the explosion.
He looked up and saw that Teyla had stopped Ronon.
"I sense them…they are very close," she said looking over her shoulder at John and the rest of the team.
Rodney pulled a gun out from under his coat. His hand was shaking as he pointed it forward. John looked over at him and frowned. "Give me that," he said taking the gun and moving up to stand with Ronon and Teyla.
"Is there another way to get out of here?" he asked.
"No," replied Ronon.
"Then, this is it?"
They both nodded.
Ronon pulled out a stunner and handed it to Teyla. John made sure Elizabeth was protected by Lorne and his men. They advanced forward until they were near the main hallway. As they turned the corner, they ran into four Wraith guards.
Okay…yes, I know. Another cliffhanger, but I couldn't resist. Evil grin. This is the last one…I promise. Please R&R! I live for feedback. Okay, maybe I don't live entirely for it, but I really, really like it.