Authors Note: I've been gone a long time and I don't know if anyone is still following this story but I've had a few messages requesting that I continue this so here I am with another chapter. The next one is already written as well, I'll try to post it sometime in the next week. For anyone who is still following this story, please forgive me for my disappearance, I promise I'll finish it.

Chapter 8

He was nervous; he could at least admit it to himself if no one else. Cal's trial was a week away and he was going to have to stand in front of a room full of people and relive the whole ordeal. He was fortunate that only a small number of people knew the full story, not even Cal knew the whole truth. Cal didn't know that his plan had been successful, that Jack had gotten addicted to the drug and had continued taking it for a few weeks after Cal's arrest. His friends had chosen to keep that part of the story to themselves, to keep Jack's record clean, a drug dependency would prevent him from ever joining the Protectorate's guild.

He knew the whole story though, it was shameful and over the last few days he'd relived it several times. He'd lied to his friends, he'd been cruel to them, had gone as far as hitting John when his secret was revealed. It wasn't a part of his life he was proud of and he hoped once the trial was over he'd be able to finally put the whole thing behind him.

There was a knock at his door and he knew immediately who it was, had learned to distinguish her knock from everyone else's. He opened the door and found Sam standing there as expected; she was dressed in dark jeans and a leather jacket. He rarely saw her in a dress but he found he liked her dressed this way better, it was more her.

"Are you ready?" she asked and he nodded, grabbing his own jacket from the end of his bed as they left. "Where do you want to eat?"

"Anywhere you like," Jack told her, putting an arm around her back as they walked across the campus toward the gate.

"How about the same place we ate last time, the food was really good there?" she asked.

"Then that's where we'll go," he replied. "Did you manage to get your history assignment finished?"

"Yes, finally, I've never had so much trouble with a piece of work ever," she told him and he could hear the frustration in her tone. "Daniel helped me with it, history has always been his favourite subject."

"Since I've seen you help him out with his potions work several times I guess it all evens out in the end," he stated and she shrugged.

"So, how nervous are you, on a scale of 1 to 10?" she asked as they left the school grounds and began their walk along the road into town. He looked at her confused for a moment before he realised what she was talking about. He was about to tell her he wasn't nervous but she gave him a look that told him not to bother.

"Sometimes I think you can read my mind," he said instead and then sighed. "I'm nervous, I've never testified in court before, I think we're all a little nervous."

"Are you going to be okay, it's got to be bringing up some... unpleasant memories for you?" Sam questioned with a meaningful expression.

"I think it's brining up unpleasant memories for everyone," he told her. "I'll be fine and if you're worried I'm going to go running off to find some Allinyas to cope then you don't need to. I learned my lesson about that the hard way, I'm not going to make that mistake again."

She smiled. "I wasn't worried about that."

"Well, good, because you don't need to be."

Laura had never been in a court room before but it looked much like she had imagined it would. There was a line of chairs for the five judges, five people elected by the community to sit through trials and pass judgements, guilty or not guilty, and to decide the punishments. In front of these, facing the judges were two desks, one for the accusers and one for the defenders. There was another chair to the side, for witnesses to sit and give their testimony, where the judges could see them speak and the defendant could face his accuser, literally, the offenders chair was opposite the witness stand. Behind the accusers and defenders desks was a wooden barrier and then more chairs, rows of them where people could sit and watch, people from the community who had an interest in the result.

"The four of you will wait in the witness waiting room, as you're called to testify you will be brought in and you will sit here," the court aide gestured to the chair at the side. He was an older man, dark hair turning grey and wrinkles beginning to appear beside his eyes. "First the accusers, the speaker for the police will question you and then when they're done the defenders will have their turn at asking you questions. They will try to pick apart your stories and they won't be kind about it."

"Who will be speaking for the defenders?" Jack asked.

"Someone appointed by the court, it is believed everyone has the right to defend themselves from any accusation and to have someone who is experienced in trials to stand for them," the aide told them.

"Sounds like a despicable job to me," Jack stated and Laura could tell he was thinking the same thing that she was, how could anyone defend someone like Cal, after everything he'd done?

"But a necessary one," the aide replied. "Once the accusers and the defenders have finished asking you questions, you may or may not be asked more questions by the judges if they feel there is anything more they need to know. When they're satisfied they will tell you that you're free to go."

"And then we can just leave?" Laura asked.

"You can leave if you wish, or you may take a seat and watch the remainder of the trial," the aide explained. "Trials can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks, some have even been known to take a couple of months, from the files, this one is likely to take a couple of days. All three of you are due to speak on the first day, you will need to be in the building ready to be called upon from the moment the trial begins, it would be better if you were here around half an hour before it starts."

"It all sounds simple enough," Laura stated with another look around the room.

"The speaker for the accusers is waiting in an office down the hall, she will meet with each of you separately now to run through your testimony. If you feel at any time that you are being influenced by the police there is a guard outside the room who will remove you from the environment immediately," the aide told them as they were led out of the court room and down the long hallway. "Mr O'Neill, you are first," he told them as they came to a stop next to a closed door. "Just knock and enter, you're expected. The rest of you can take a seat, you will be called shortly."

The aide left then and with a shrug Jack knocked and disappeared into the office, the door closing behind him. Laura watched a woman in a suit walk quickly passed them, determination on her face and a large pile of papers in her arms.

"Wonder if she's working on another case," Laura said.

"Probably," Elizabeth replied. "There's a big trial being held at the moment, that woman who killed her neighbour, the trial is expected to finish this week, that's why Cal's is scheduled for next week."

"Working as a judge must be awfully depressing," Laura muttered.

The warm weather was quickly on its way out. Another week or two and they'd all be bundling themselves into coats every day, as it was they could still get away with a decent jacket. They'd all gathered at the river, enjoying the little bit of sunshine nature was still granting them and waiting for Jack, Elizabeth and Laura to get back from their visit to court. They'd all been nervous when they'd left the school just after lunch, it was going to be worse when they actually had to go and testify next week.

"I think that's wrong," Kate said looking over Rodney's shoulder at the work he was doing.

"No, it's not," Rodney said quickly.

"It's wrong," Kate repeated. "Cyan crystals have calming properties; a lot of spiritual healers use them to help their patients. My father has a whole box full of them."

"Physical healers use them too," Carson supplied, "to help keep patients calm, it aids the healing process."

"Well aren't you two just know it all's," Rodney muttered under his breath as he drew a line through whatever he'd written and wrote something else.

"They're here," Teyla announced and John followed her gaze to where their friends were walking along the side of the river to join them. They all looked fine, no worse for wear, as they sat with the rest of the group. "So, how did it go?"

"It was fine," Jack said. "They gave us a tour of the court, explained how everything is going to work next week and then went through our testimonies. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The speaker for the police was nice, I don't think the defenders are going to be as gentle with us when we're actually on the stand. I'm not looking forward to the cross examination at all."

Sam laid a hand over his, "I'm sure you'll all do fine."

"They think the trial is going to take a couple of days, we're all testifying on the first day so it'll be out of the way pretty quickly. We won't be allowed in to the court room until after we've testified but afterwards we'll be allowed to sit and watch the trial. I don't know if I want to take them up on that yet. I mostly just want to put this all behind me but I also want to see that ass go down for this, I want to see his face when they deliver the guilty verdict," Laura said with bitterness in her voice towards the end, she'd suffered more because of Cal than the rest of them.

"I'll be staying for the trial," Elizabeth stated. "I definitely want to see his face when they read the guilty verdict."

"If they find him guilty," Rodney commented, several annoyed pairs of eyes swung in his direction. "What?" he questioned and rolled his eyes. "It's not like the courts have never gotten it wrong before, I'm just saying."

"Well don't," Ronon said with a shake of his head, for someone so smart, Rodney could be incredibly dim at times.

Cameron hated history, he had a hard enough time paying attention in history class on a good day but discussing the finer points of a society that had lived and died in the mountains a thousand years ago was pushing his limits. He'd zoned out several times already, missed most of the notes he should have made and no longer had any idea what professor Grant was talking about.

"Their customs were considered unusual by society at large, they still matched children for marriage in their infancy, divorce was forbidden and each family was expected to produce two children, no more and no less," Grant explained as he walked around the classroom and Cameron made an effort to look like he was diligently making notes.

"Why do we need to know this stuff?" Ronon whispered.

"I have no idea," Cameron replied.

"The society was self contained, they rarely ventured down from their mountain home and when they did it was to the curious, dubious and sometimes hateful stares of the rest of society," Grant continued, passing by Cameron and returning to the front of class.

"How is this ever going to be useful to me?" Cameron said quietly.

"You never know what could be useful to you in the future Mr Mitchell," Grant stated and then continued to talk about the politics within the mountain society. Had they had a name? Was he supposed to have written that down already? He glanced at Ronon's paper, couldn't see the name of the society and looked to the other side. Vala had made less notes than he had and she'd started doodling in the margins. He did however spot the name of the mountain people's society amongst the few notes she had made. The Greys, he wrote that down amongst his own notes.

"You should be paying more attention," Vala commented in a whispered voice.

"You're one to talk," Cameron replied. "You pay less attention than me."

"I've got all the important points down," Vala said as she quickly jotted down another note and then went back to her doodle. "I've been paying attention the whole time; I can multi-task, and just because I don't look like I'm paying attention, doesn't mean I'm not."

"Good," Cameron said glancing up at Grant to make sure he wasn't caught talking again. "Then I can borrow your notes later."

Vala smirked, "Maybe, I'll think about it."

"You borrow my potions notes all time," Cameron commented.

"Such as they are," Vala said with a small smile. "And that's because I'm not good at potions, not because I don't listen... most of the time."

They'd all been excitedly awaiting this since the start of the semester. The first Atala Guild meeting of the new year. They entered the assembly hall where the meeting was being held and took seats where the second years had sat last year. They watched some new faces trickle into the room, the first years. They would already have had their initial meeting with the seniors but this was their first proper meeting and their first time seeing the rest of the guild. There were a few less of them than Jack had been expecting but then Atala was notoriously hard to get into. Jack felt a surge of pride at the thought.

He turned back to his conversation with Tyson, a third year he'd become friends with last year. They didn't socialise much outside the guild but he was always good to talk to during meetings. "Wait until next year, they start piling on the pressure about making your senior course choices right from the first day. I don't even have to make my choices for another six months and I already feel like I should know what they are."

"I know some of what I want to do," Jack replied. "I think I do anyway, not looking forward to actually making the choices though, you're kind of stuck with whatever you decide, once it's done it's done."

"Just add to the pressure, why don't you," Tyson joked.

"Looks like everyone's here," Kieran stood in front of the hall and gestured for quiet. "I'm Kieran, the new guild leader. To those of you returning, welcome back to Atala, and to those who are just joining us, welcome to the guild. I hope you've all had an excellent start to the school year. Last year Atala won the guild competition, let's do the same again this year. The majority of you will take on the same activities you did last year, I hope you're ready to work hard again. First years, you'll be assigned to a temporary category for now but we may move you if we feel your talents would be better suited elsewhere. First years remain where you are, the rest of you know what do."

Jack, Janet and John moved together to work on their defence skills. The three of them had no choice about which of their categories to work on since they were all on sports teams for their second categories and could only train when the team arranged it. They joined the senior in charge of defensive training for the year and a few others who'd opted to work on their defence skills over whatever their other category was.

Jack was fortunate they'd already learned one of the spells needed for the second year defence competition and the senior set the three of them up working on that before going to help someone else.

"This is going to be a much bigger challenge this year," Jack commented. The spells they were defending against were much more powerful this year and so their defence had to be the same. It had to be quick and it had to be strong, otherwise they'd be going back to their dorms with a few new bruises.

John took up the offensive position and used the general offensive spell they'd been taught for these practices. It wasn't as powerful as the one they were going to be up against for the competition but they hadn't been properly taught how to use that one yet. Besides, it was better to use the low grade offensive spell that couldn't really do any damage while they got the hang of the defensive part first.

He heard John's voice a split second before the energy burst from himn and flew at Jack "Arma," Jack shouted quickly, he'd forgotten how proficient John was wit that particular offensive trick.

The expected shield didn't appear, not that he'd really been expecting it to, he hadn't gotten the hang of it in class yet either. The ball of energy hit him square in the chest hard enough to knock him backwards, his back hitting the matt.

"Jeez," Jack said as he pushed himself up. "Go a little easy on a guy."

"Sorry," John replied with a grimace. "I'll knock it down a peg."

"Or twenty," Jack said. "Janet, your turn."

Janet didn't look too sure but stepped into Jack's place and when the burst of energy headed her way, she called up the shield, and it didn't appear. She was hit by the energy and staggered backwards but she remained on her feet. By the end of the sessions, they'd all managed to call up the shield at least once but it had been weak and unstable, they were going to need some serious practice.

TBC