A/N- YAY! 55 Reviews. I asked, and you gave and now, you shall recieve!

Chapter 15: Reasserting Reality

John stepped through and met Elizabeth's eyes. Before him, he could see a weight lift off her and he wondered if the alternate reality Elizabeth that he meant was right about what she had said.

"It's good to see you safe. It's good to have you home." Elizabeth- his Elizabeth whispered and John had to smile and agree.

"It is good to be home."

oOo

Reality reasserted itself almost instantly. Carson, working in with Jennifer who was grateful to have her boss back- managed to reverse engineer the 'Ascension Device' to fix Elizabeth. In mere moments she was walking around again. Rodney managed to fix their DHD and they could once again dial Earth directly- especially with the ZPM that Carson brought powering Atlantis' systems.

oOo

"Teyla," Elizabeth began tentatively as she stepped into the isolated infirmary room which housed a very pregnant Teyla. It had only been about two weeks since they had found out that the young Athosian woman was pregnant and Elizabeth's heart reached out to her. "-how are you feeling?"

"Not well," Teyla admitted as she struggled to sit up. "-the monster within me is very restless."

"Well, Carson and Jennifer have tried to do all they can to terminate the child as per your wishes but-"

"-but the Wraith DNA is proving to be resilient." Teyla finished with a sigh. "I know, they have both made me aware of the situation."

"I'm sorry that we can't do anything for you and..." Elizabeth trailed off as she saw Teyla's eyes roll back into her head. Only the whites were showing and Teyla began to tremble. Elizabeth was about to call out to Carson, but Teyla began to speak in a voice that was not her own.

"On a planet where the people are advanced, the calm will be taken and the strong will be locked up. Only by trusting the heart will the calm be found again."

"Teyla?" Elizabeth asked worriedly as the machines started to beep around her. Instantly Carson and Jennifer were there trying to stabilize her.

In the end they managed too but Teyla had slipped into a coma.

"Well?" Elizabeth asked worriedly as Carson walked over to her.

"It's not good lass." He admitted sadly. "She's not doing good,"

"Surely there must be something that you can-"

"I'm sorry." Carson apologized. "Once the baby is born perhaps-"

"You really want to let it get that far?"

"I don't think we have a choice." Jennifer piped up. "Elizabeth, you mentioned that she said something?"

"Yes. Teyla said that on a planet where people are advanced the calm will be taken and the strong will be locked up. Only by trusting the heart will things be okay again."

"Any idea what that means lass?"

"I have no idea." Elizabeth answered honestly. "But I assume that we'll find out soon."

oOo

They did find out, sooner than they had hoped or wanted. John found himself in a spartan looking cell all the while wracking his brain in a vain attempt to figure out what was going on and what had happened.

He silently hoped that he would be able to see one of his team soon for it had been two or three days since he had had any human contact and his rations were beginning to run low. He was in one of the worst predicaments that he had ever gotten himself into and worst of all- he knew he was being charged with the death of someone he knew that he would never- ever kill.

"I couldn't have…." He whispered silently to himself, his head in his hands. "There is no way….she's not dead……she can't be…..I know she's not."

"Sheppard…." Rodney's voice broke John out of his pondering and with his panic rising again he walked to the bars of his cell and faced Rodney.

"McKay, you have to get me out of here." John pleaded, his hands gripping the bars of the cell, his knuckles ghastly white and his heart beating a mile a minute. "We have to find Elizabeth."

"Sheppard," McKay began slowly, his heart aching for his friend and the friend he had lost. "Elizabeth is dead. You ki-"

"I know!" John snapped slamming his hands against the bars and making them rattle. "I know all about the charges McKay, the Telarian government told me what happened." John barely paused to take a breath before soullessly reciting what he had been told. "Elizabeth is dead and I killed her. Her blood was found on my hands and shirt. I was found unconscious in her room."

"Yeah," Rodney agreed quietly. "That's what happened."

"Get a grip McKay." John ordered slamming his hands against the bars again, his anger rising once again. "Do you actually think that I killed her?"

"Well-" Rodney began, biting his lower lip and pausing to think.

"Oh come on Rodney." John chastised furiously, his anger bubbling over. "Give me some credit. I wouldn't kill Elizabeth……I couldn't have killed her….I….."

"The authorities said that you were drunk." Rodney interrupted looking away from John. "It was quite a party….."

"I had nothing to drink at the party Rodney," John insisted vehemently, though after thinking about it he did reconsider his statement. "The only drink I had was yours. I was stone cold sober. After the party, Elizabeth wanted to talk to me about something, I went to her room and-"

"And…….?"

"And nothing." John snapped going to sit down on the meagre bed that he had been provided. "I don't know what happened next McKay. I don't remember, it's like there is a wall there. I can remember everything before the party and up to the moment I knocked on Elizabeth's door but after that…." John sighed and shook his head.

"…after that, all I remember was waking up in that damn interrogation room and being told that Elizabeth was dead and that I killed her." John spit out the last few words as if they were poison.

"So you don't know anything." Rodney answered simply, leaning against the bars of the cell.

"No." John insisted as he got up and went to the bars of his cell again. "That's not true. I do know something."

"Well what is it Sheppard?"

"I know that I didn't kill Elizabeth." John insisted for what felt like the 100th time that day. "I know that Elizabeth isn't dead."

"And how do you know that?" Rodney asked, his hands crossed in front of his chest sceptically.

"I don't know." John admitted, leaning sideways against the bars of his cell. "But I just do." John paused and tried to think back to what happened. Again he came against that black, blank wall. He couldn't remember what happened, but somewhere, deep in his gut he knew that Elizabeth wasn't dead.

"I don't know," He repeated again looking up at McKay. "But I just do….my gut is telling me that Elizabeth is out there somewhere."

"Your gut?"

"Come off it McKay." John snapped. "Elizabeth is not dead and I did not kill her, I can tell you that for certain." John gripped the bars of his cell again and looked straight at Rodney. "Now, Elizabeth is out there somewhere and either you get me out of here or you go out there and find her yourself. Either way, we prove that I'm innocent."

"Alright, alright-" Rodney yielded, knowing that when John had a gut feeling, he was usually right. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you Rodney." John stated with a sigh of relief, it felt as though a weight had been lifted off his chest. Someone finally believed him- and it was Rodney of all people- finally he was getting somewhere- he just hoped that it wasn't too late for Elizabeth where ever she was.

"Don't thank me yet." Rodney answered pessimistically when he noticed the relief on John's face. "It's going to be almost impossible to get you out of here,"

"So go find her." John ordered. "And do it quick because it's been two days already, you have to find what happened to her."

"I don't even know where to start." Rodney complained.

"Start with the Prime Minister," John suggested. "He was acting awfully nervous around his second in command- maybe you can get him to slip and let me out of here."

"Prime Minister Kellan?"

"He's the one." John confirmed as two guards approached Rodney, signalling that his visiting hours were up.

"Alright." Rodney sighed both to the guards and to John. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you Rodney." John thanked again as his friend was led out of the cell and once Rodney was gone, John was left alone again to contemplate his fate- and Elizabeth's.

'Thank god Rodney believes me.' John thought to himself as he laid down on the lumpy bed. 'At least now we can get something done- but its been two days…..who knows where she is now….she could be on another planet by now.'

'Now stop thinking like that' John chastised himself as he rolled over onto his side. 'Elizabeth is probably here somewhere-'

'But what if she's not- what if she's gone- what if….' John gulped at the thought. 'What if I really did kill her?'

'Don't think like that Sheppard.' John snapped at himself as he rolled onto his other side so he was now facing the wall. 'If you don't believe that you're innocent, how in hell can you expect for Rodney or anyone else to believe you?'

A/N- And thus begins my 'Only Hope' storyline for those of you who might have happened upon it on my main page. This is going to be a rather substantial part of MY version of season four and I hope that I've sufficiantly grabbed your interest. Thank you to my dear reviewers HE, Jenni, Lemons Ginger, shweir rule and dear Anuna. Between the six of you I've got 55 reviews and I'm loving it:D So please, take the time to read and review this chapter too... and lemme see, I'll update the next chapter when I get 60 reviews. :D I know that it's kinda lame, but TONS of people are hitting this story and it only takes two seconds to review and say either 'hey I liked it' or 'hey this stunk' Preferably, you'll all like it but I won't know until you review so PLEASE beloved readers, REVIEW!