Date : 11.02.2008
Title : The A.U. Series : Lost City Of The ZPM's
Author : ElaineDex
Chapter : 7 of 9
Rating : M
Pairings : None at this point in the story.
Warnings : Some Sexual Content, Romance, Adventure, Maybe Some Strong Language.
Spoilers : This story has character's in it from my Loves series and follows on from my last story - New Beginnings.
Feedback : Yes please, always welcome whatever it may be.
Disclaimer : Dr. Ellie Harrison, Lt. Matthew Franks, and any O/C's are mine. Lyssa Hunter belongs to Kazavid and is from her Atlantis stories Behind The Mask and Reunions. Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately, has nothing to do with me.
Summary : Can the teams survive an adventure fit for Indiana Jones as they search for a whole city supposedly full of ZPM's?
Lyssa and Sheppard moved from room to room and quickly realised that they weren't going to get anywhere.
"Do you think we should head back to the ladder and climb back up to the level above?", Lyssa asked and Sheppard sighed and glanced around.
"Yeah…maybe there's a secret door or something that we missed in that room", he replied and Lyssa nodded.
They headed back through the maze of rooms and promptly got lost.
"This is not happening", Sheppard muttered as they came across a room that was basically a dead end.
"Is it just me or are all of these rooms starting to look the same?", Lyssa said and Sheppard agreed.
He tapped his ear-piece.
"Ellie…do you have any idea how Lyssa and I can get off the ground floor…we're a little lost down here?".
Ellie paused and looked at her map, frowning and Lorne regarded her and moved closer to examine the map over her shoulder.
Ellie glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and tried to ignore the heat from his body as she pressed her ear-piece.
"You need to get back up onto the level above you John…there is a door in the room, you just need to find the release catch".
Sheppard rolled his eyes at Lyssa and said,
"Thanks…we'll head back up then".
In another part of the temple, Ronon and McKay glanced around the room they had just entered which was completely empty, just like all the others they had been through so far.
McKay tapped his ear-piece.
"Ellie…what are we doing here exactly? The next time you come up with a plan to find some ZPM's, remind me to…..", he trailed off as Ellie interrupted him.
"You're just jealous because Michael gave me this location and not you".
"Oh yeah, sure I am…because I really want to be best friends with a life-sucking Wraith…", McKay shot back and Ellie pulled a face and Lorne rolled his eyes.
"Could we please concentrate on where we're going here", he said and Ellie stuck her tongue out at him.
"Good idea", Ronon agreed and Ellie huffed.
"What is wrong with you guys? Are you not having fun?", she asked and Lorne shook his head at her as McKay began ranting about dust and allergies and being hungry and wanting to go home.
In the meantime Sheppard and Lyssa had finally managed to find the room with the rope ladder and were feeling pretty pleased with themselves.
"Well…that wasn't too bad I guess", Sheppard said and Lyssa smiled at him and he thought, for not the first time that day, just how attractive she was.
He hadn't really had that much to do with her in the past…she had been Ronon's girlfriend and a trusted member of Lorne's team but that had been it and he realised that he had barely spoken to her before this mission.
Maybe he should change that.
'He was single now and so was she…'.
'Interesting', he thought as he watched her pert bottom making its way back up the ladder above him.
"So…I hear you and Ronon broke up…", he ventured and he saw Lyssa's feet pause mid-climb and he wondered if he should have mentioned Ronon at all.
"Yeah", she replied cautiously. "I felt like things weren't the same between us anymore…".
"I see", Sheppard said, not sure what to say next.
Lyssa saved him the trouble of having to think of something though as she asked,
"You and Ellie…is that definitely over now?".
"I….", Sheppard began but trailed off as a loud rumbling noise from above began and the rope ladder began to wobble.
High above them, Ronon glared at McKay.
"Did you have to touch that?", he snarled as Rodney looked in panic at the loose stone he had removed from an ornate wall decoration they had come across in a corridor.
He tried to put the stone back in its place as the corridor began to shudder.
"Oh come on", he muttered as he struggled but eventually he grinned and stepped back triumphantly as he managed it and the corridor stopped shaking.
Momentarily.
Ronon looked up at just the right moment and then he launched himself at Rodney, knocking him out of the way as a huge stone slab dropped from the ceiling.
It crashed through the floor of the corridor they were in, missing them by inches and then it plummeted downwards, smashing through the floors of the levels below.
Rodney and Ronon stared at the hole in the floor in horror.
"Sheppard…watch out down there!", Ronon warned through the comms and Sheppard and Lyssa looked up as the sound of something big coming their way got louder and dust and debris began to filter down around them.
"Lyssa…move back down…hurry", Sheppard said and Lyssa began trying to move back down the ladder as fast as she could but it was tricky and both she and Sheppard paused as something huge crashed through the ceiling of the room above the one they were in.
Lyssa screamed involuntarily as something landed over the hole they had been climbing toward and the ladder shook and swung so much that both she and Sheppard lost their grip and they fell to the floor, Lyssa landing on top of Sheppard.
They both lay stunned and winded as dust settled all around them. The room was now in total darkness because the falling dust and because the gush of air from when the slab had landed had blocked off the hole and snuffed out the torches.
"Lyssa! Sheppard?!", Ronon tried through the comms, glaring at McKay when there was no response.
Rodney looked back at Ronon, his face full of panic.
In another room, Lorne turned to Ellie.
"Did you feel something just now?", he asked and Ellie looked at him.
"Like what?", she asked, watching as he looked around warily.
"I don't know…come on, lets just keep moving", he replied and she shrugged and followed him, her eyes dropping unintentionally to his ass and she felt her cheeks burn.
'What on earth was she doing?, she thought. 'He hated her and she hated him…didn't she?'.
Ellie shook her head and squared her shoulders. 'Just because Major Do Everything By The Book had lost his cool and kissed her did not mean that he liked her…did it?'.
"Stop it", she muttered, blushing when Lorne looked at her over his shoulder.
"You say something?", he asked and she shook her head.
"No".
Lorne looked away and she sighed.
She had to get a grip.
Teyla had removed the arrow from Franks' shoulder and patched him up as best she could with her limited medical supplies.
"You may put your top back on now", she told him, her mouth going dry at the sweat slick sight of his stomach muscles and broad chest.
Franks thought he heard a note of regret in her voice but he couldn't be certain.
He had liked Teyla for some time now but she had always seemed so untouchable. He didn't mean she wasn't friendly or anything like that, more the type of woman whom was out of his league…or so he thought.
He shrugged his T-shirt back over his head as gently as possible so as not to disturb the bandage and he glanced around.
"I think we should try and carry on now…we shouldn't stay here too long as once they notice there's only two of us they'll come after us again".
"I agree", replied Teyla.
They worked their way along the boulders for as far as they could and then nodded at one another before taking off along the dirt track where Ellie had fallen down the embankment earlier in their journey.
They made it to the edge of the collapsed maze and paused to catch their breath.
"How the hell do we get around this?", Franks asked as he straightened and regarded the mass of crumbled stone before them.
"I think the quickest route would be to go over", Teyla replied and she and Franks looked at one another as they realised the same thing. If anything flew overhead they would be easy targets but what choice did they have?
If they tried to go around it could take a lot longer and if they deviated from the route they had taken in, they could get lost.
Steeling their selves they began to climb over the stones.
They kept a look out whilst they clambered across the tricky rubble and they were almost at the other side when they heard the tell-tale whine of a Wraith dart.
"Great. That's all we need", Franks muttered as they tried to quicken their pace.
If they didn't get down off the top of the mazes' rubble they would be sitting ducks for the Wraith's culling beam.
As the dart got nearer, Franks got down first and held his arms up to Teyla who jumped down into them, the culling beam missing her by seconds.
Franks pressed her against the side of the stones with his hard body as they waited for the dart to re-appear. They waited for what seemed like an age and finally, when they heard nothing further, Franks pulled back and looked down at her.
"Are you alright?", he asked, lifting his hand and moving some hair that had come loose from her clip and was hanging around her face and getting in her eyes.
"Yes…I am fine thank you", she replied looking up into his chocolate brown eyes.
Franks knew that he had to kiss her there and then because it may be the only chance he ever got.
Before he could lose his nerve he pressed his mouth down over hers and kissed her, relief washing through him as he felt Teyla mould herself against him, her hands gripping his upper arms.
When they eventually pulled apart they grinned at one another.
"I have been wanting you to do that for the longest time", Teyla admitted, a blush stealing through her cheeks and Franks suddenly felt more alive than he had in years!
He smiled at her and gripped her hand.
"Come on…lets get back to the jumper so that we can get the others and get the hell away from this place", he said and Teyla agreed.
Ellie and Lorne entered a huge room and looked around at the immensely high ceiling and enormous statues.
"Wow", Ellie commented as she looked around.
This was without doubt the most decorative room they had come across so far.
"Strange", Ellie commented and Lorne sighed.
"What is?", he asked and she glanced at him, frowning as he leaned back against the belly of the statue of a naked woman which was behind him.
"How this room is so elaborate compared to the others…and you really shouldn't lean against anything…remember what happened the last time….", she said, trailing off as suddenly the statues hands clamped down upon Lorne's shoulders and he struggled and tried to move but to no avail.
"What the hell….?", he said trying to twist out of the statues grasp but she was holding him fast.
"Uh-oh", Ellie murmured as the grin that had first spread across her face at seeing Lorne's predicament suddenly faded and her expression looked worried as she glanced above him.
"Uh-oh? Don't uh-oh me. What does that mean?", Lorne asked, still straining against the statue's hold as Ellie pointed upwards.
Lorne twisted and looked up and saw that a large cauldron type pot with what appeared to be boiling oil in it had moved to directly above his head…'Must have been when the statue's hands had lowered', Ellie thought.
"You had better get me out of this or I'll….", he trailed off as Ellie glared at him.
"Or you'll what? Kiss me again?", she snapped and Lorne's eyes narrowed at her.
"You should be so lucky", he commented and Ellie's eyes widened.
"Why you complete ass…..", her words trailed off though as the rope that held the cauldron steady, suddenly dropped lower.
End of Chapter 7