Title: Salvation

Author: atlantis child (Command Dynamics), innocent choir girl John and Elizabeth are separated from the team during a diplomatic mission off-world when they are ambushed by Genii. Hope is far and survival is the only thing on John's mind. They must struggle against Kolya in order to keep information from him and to break out of the Genii prison. Spoilers for seasons one through three.

Genres: Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort

Warnings: Abuse, Character Death, Drugs, Torture, Violence

Rating: PG-13

Chapter: 5 "Anger"

Author's Notes: Okay, so as I explained before school has started up. So, this has just taken me a while to type up due to extreme stress from school and work and general life. sighs Life would be so much easier if you could be a student and didn't have to work full time ;)

The minute John gave up the code Kolya let him and Elizabeth go back to the cell. Another tray was slipped in, this time with a greenish colored mush and enough food for two. He had gone through the pack pulling out emergency blankets out in an effort to make Elizabeth more comfortable. The main thing that worried him was that she had yet to regain consciousness…all he had heard was a groan come from her. Her eyes hadn't opened… There hadn't been any words… Cries were the only thing that had come from her. Wrapping one of the foil blankets around her, he held her close. "You're safe, Elizabeth," he whispered. It was partially true. "I'm not going to let Kolya hurt you anymore," he promised. His heart broke seeing her like that. He wasn't sure if he was ready to find out.

After a while, John felt that he should tell her exactly how much she meant to him. If they died, he wanted her to know. "Elizabeth," he started his voice breaking as he tried to form words.

"John?" Elizabeth mumbled weakly. She clutched to the strange crinkly material. Her eyes didn't open. She already hurt so much. She doubted she needed to see anything that they had done to her.

Relief overwhelmed him as he tightened his hold on her and pressed a long kiss to her forehead. "I'm here," he whispered.

"Kolya—" she started, but then stopped. Her whole body hurt.

"I know," John said. "He told me you were dead…"

Finally, Elizabeth opened her eyes realizing exactly why Kolya had wanted her. She also knew why Kolya had said he was playing mind games with John before she had been beaten. John had thought she was dead. "You didn't tell him anything…" she said confident that he would keep their secrets. The anger she saw in her eyes scared her, she didn't often see that type of anger in John's eyes.

"I gave him an old code," John confessed. "They won't accept it."

"John—" Elizabeth started, her voice laced with fear and a bit of disappointment.

He shook his head, "It was an old code, Elizabeth… It's expired," he tried to explain not wanting her to worry. He knew Kolya wouldn't be happy when he found out that, and John could only hope that Kolya himself went through and was slammed into the Atlantis gate's iris, but somehow he saw Kolya as slightly smarter than that.

Her voice was soft as she asked him, needing to know the answer to her question, "Why did you give him the code at all, John?" John was a solider and he knew how to handle interrogations and threats, so why did he give into Kolya?

Pain was what he heard in her voice and it only went to fuel his anger. John just stared at her for a minute before finally speaking up. "It was the only way to get you back…" he told her softly.

"John, you know the safety of Atlantis is more important than one person," Elizabeth told him. Even if it was an old code, she wasn't sure if the senior staff was desperate enough if they'd accept it or not. She hurt, but she also didn't want to worry John. At the moment, just laying there in his arms with him there was more than enough comfort to her mass of injuries.

"You're not just one person, Elizabeth," he told her and then moved her so he could look her over. He wanted to change the subject. He could get her out…or at least he hoped he could.

"John—"

"What hurts?" he asked quickly. In order to even try to escape, he figured Elizabeth would have to walk at the very least.

"John—"

He could be stubborn, too. "If you don't tell me then I'll have to start looking and poking around," he threatened. "Does anything not move?"

Giving in with a sigh, she gave him a small nod. "My arm…" she told him. "My left arm."

John tried to be careful as he removed her arm from the jacket's sleeve so he could look it over. He was horrified and immediately enraged when he saw that Elizabeth's arm was not only dark shades of black, purple, and blues, but swollen as well. He could also see the point in her upper arm where the bone had been broken. It was dangerously close to the skin, and John didn't like the idea of it punching through the muscle and tissue anymore than it already was. He frantically looked through the kit for something to help him patch her up. "I'm gonna try and splint that so the bone doesn't come through."

Elizabeth watched him, "Sounds like a good idea. I prefer to keep bones inside of my body."

He suddenly wished for a split second that Beckett was there, but quickly banished that thought at the idea of Carson having to go through any of the torture that they had both been put through. "Can you move your legs?" he asked as he pulled out the splint that was in the bag and held it up to Elizabeth's arm trying to see which size to use on it.

"It hurts, but they move," she confirmed.

"I'm going to get you out of here," he told her. "As soon as you're good enough for us to move, I'm going to get us out of here…" John wasn't exactly sure how that was going to work, but he was going to get her out…even if it killed him. "And for the record, no more off-world diplomatic missions…"

"It was fine until the Genii decided to start shooting people…" she mumbled holding her head with her right hand.

As gently as possible, he splinted her upper left arm. He heard her cry out, but was muffled since she was biting her bottom lip trying to stay quiet. "Sorry," he mumbled as he finished it. At least with the splint in place you couldn't see the bone pressed against the inner muscle to the skin. He looked at the kit, "There's some pain medication in here," he told her.

"No…" she told him, fighting what her brain was telling her. "If Kolya comes back, I want to be fully conscious…" Elizabeth was too worried that the medication would make her feel okay enough to fall asleep or just make her too out of it. It wasn't the time for it.

John carefully moved away from Elizabeth and over to the tray, dragging it over. "You should eat something," he told her. "It's disgusting…but it's still food." When she shook her head, he held up one of the pieces of bread, "You need to eat…" He moved it closer to her mouth deciding that he'd have to continue to use threats, "You don't eat…then I don't eat…" He could see the frustration in her face, she wasn't happy with it, but she finally opened her mouth and he started to feed her the bread.

The heavy footfalls coming towards them was what woke John immediately. He had managed to get food into Elizabeth and after much argument; he had managed to also get her to take one pill for pain, which had quickly lulled her off to sleep. He had slept up against one of the walls with her held tightly in his arms. But the footsteps getting louder made John's heart pound. Kolya had no doubtingly tried to send the code to Atlantis and had found out that it was fake…or at least not current. Moving Elizabeth carefully to the dark corner, he propped her up against the wall in hopes that they would want him and would leave her alone. And John just hoped that she'd sleep through them taking him away as well.

When the door swung open though, the guards immediately fanned out. One set throwing John up against the wall while another picked up Elizabeth and took her out of the room. John yelled, he knew if she woke up that either way she'd panic…either from his yelling or the fact that Kolya's men had her again.

Kolya stepped in, and approached John. "Sheppard, that was a bold move you made… You risked Doctor Weir's life…once again. You might not be so lucky this time. Perhaps I need to make more of a point. Do you not believe I'll kill her? She's already pretty close to it…"

"I gave you a code, Kolya," John argued.

"The code did not work…" he said coldly. "I lost five good men."

"So take me, not Elizabeth… I know more about the workings of Atlantis, the codes, and the tactics… She's just a civilian…" John tried to negotiate. He wanted Kolya to give her back. He was too afraid of what they'd do to her this time after seeing what they had done.

Kolya smirked, "At least you seem to give in when I use her… Maybe you would like to watch? But I know Sheppard that you will not give me what I want…not the real codes…"

"So why even try? Let Elizabeth go…"

Tilting his head, Kolya studied John for a minute before responding, "Even you know that women have more uses than for interrogation purposes… They could even be used as techniques to extract information… We get lonely here being separated from the rest of the Genii," he said.

"Don't touch her!" he snapped launching himself forward against the two Genii who were holding him to the wall.

Kolya just smirked before turning and walking out of the cell.

TBC…