Stargate Atlantis: Path of the Storm

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Chapter Sixteen

Elizabeth Weir stood with an anxious expression as she stared at the shimmering puddle, which covered the gateroom in a beautiful bright glow. They had just received Sergeant Bates' IDC and were still awaiting the arrival of the team, she checked her watch once more than exchanged a glance with Peter Grodin who then looked back to the stargate.

The team wasn't due back yet, they had only left fifteen minutes ago and she was certain that it wasn't enough time to cover the entire area they had planned to search. Teyla Emmagan was still lying gravely ill in the infirmary and without knowing the plant that had did this to her, she would most certainly die. She swallowed gently and folded her arms tightly around herself, trying not to show how apprehensive she was to the rest of her expedition. Weir prided herself on being able to handle any situation thrown at her alone and she couldn't allow herself to show any signs of weakness, if she couldn't be strong then that would reflect on her team.

Teyla was ill and Major Sheppard was still missing, the only certain thing about this situation was the certainty of who had planned this entire ordeal. Kolya. He'd had Teyla poisoned as well as Ford and Rodney but the Athosian had come off the worst. While they were incapacitated Kolya had taken John away from the rest of his team and to a disclosed location. They hadn't even received any demands of any sort from the man, which meant one thing. This had nothing to do with Atlantis; it had to be a purely personal attack.

"Doctor Weir," Grodin said, his distinctly British accent breaking into her thoughts. She blinked, unfolded her arms and looked down to him then in the direction of the gate. Ford emerged first, closely followed by Bates, the two scientists and Summers and Reed. Without taking her eyes from the sight, Weir ran out of the control room and quickly descended the stairs as the gate shut down.

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It had been an incredibly slow day, Carson Beckett decided as he looked up from behind his mug of strong coffee and laid eyes upon Teyla. For the time being he had managed to keep her stabilised but the doctor also knew that it could all change within a matter of moments. She was still able to breath on her own and her blood pressure remained at the same level, he got out of his seat and walked over to her. "Aye lass," he said gently before glancing to the monitor to note down her statistics in the medical chart he'd picked up. "Just hold on a little longer." Carson scribbled down the notes then placed it back down on the stand next to her bed; he tilted his head to one side as he looked down at her. "None of us are giving up love. On that you can be sure."

He realised that he was taking to a patient that most likely couldn't hear him, he quickly scanned the room to see if any of his staff had wandered in. To his fortune, they hadn't and Carson looked back to Teyla once more. In all his years of practising medicine, he hadn't really stopped and spoken to patients. That is to say unconscious patients but then again he hadn't spent a long period of time with them, getting to know them and how they thought.

Carson would admit to not knowing Teyla quite as well as some other members of the team, Major Sheppard was such an example and from what he knew the two of them had hit it off straight away. He'd never been that way with people although he did possess a certain charisma, which helped him out of a lot of bad situations, thankfully he hadn't encountered one where his life was in serious threat…yet. No, he thought finally leaving Teyla and walking back over to his desk. He wouldn't change his profession for anything, Ford, Sheppard and all those like him were the warriors and he was a healer. Carson couldn't see that changing any time soon.

Once more looking over to Teyla, he let out a brief sigh before getting back to work.

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They hadn't even stepped through the gate and already Doctor Weir was waiting for them, Ford had agreed before they left Bre'tar that he should be the one to break both the good news and the bad news to Weir. Since he felt marginally responsible for Sheppard being taken, he thought it would be best if he did all the talking and especially because the lives of two of his team were in jeopardy. They knew Teyla's life was on the line and Kolya had been very intent on getting his revenge on the major for what took place during the storm that hit Atlantis a few months ago.

"Lieutenant?" Weir asked with a questioning look to the entire team before looking back to Ford.

"Ma'am," Ford replied before shutting his mouth. He wouldn't admit to being very good at words and he wished he had more time to work out what he was going to say but this wasn't some damn speech, it was breaking news to a fellow teammate. "While we were on Bre'tar searching for the plant samples we ran into Kolya."

"You confronted him?" Weir asked, her voice somewhere in between accusation and fear. "Did you see Major Sheppard?" Ford hadn't expected Weir to immediately ask him questions that he couldn't even began to ask and he waited until he was sure she was finished. She lowered her gaze before giving an apologetic smile. "Sorry Lieutenant. Go on." She waited a moment before encouraging him to continue. "You ran into Kolya…" Weir supplied.

"I wouldn't exactly say we ran into him ma'am," Bates said deciding this would be a good time to speak up.

"Kolya must have gone back to the village, he had some hostages with him," Ford added. "We managed to get out of sight before he left through the gate."

"Hostages?" Weir asked with a confused expression. She could understand why he had taken Sheppard but what would he want with the Bre'tar people?

"We assume they were hostages," Bates replied shooting Ford a look.

"They didn't exactly look co-operative to me," Ford shot back then paid his attention back to Weir. "There's another thing you should know ma'am."

Weir looked up to him with expectant expression.

"We think we might be able to find out where he's holding Major Sheppard."

Of all the news she had needed to hear, this was definitely one of the best things she had heard all day. Elizabeth was still extremely sceptical when he didn't sound a hundred percent certain but agreed that they had to start somewhere. Feeling that same sense of hope travelling through her veins, she straightened up and looked back to him.

"Go on Lieutenant…"

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