Chapter 22: Rescuing Elizabeth

"Oh Doctor Weir," Kolya stated with a sickly grin. "You're never going to be quite the same again."

Elizabeth tried to back away, but one could only back away so far when they were tied to a chair. She watched in utter horror as Kolya came towards her with a needle looking contraption and she just had a horrible sinking feeling that she was going to die, without ever being able to tell John how she really felt about him.

...

John knew that Kolya was smart, but even he was surprised how easy it had been to find them. Ronan, using his excellent tracking skills was able to retrace the steps that Kolya took to take Elizabeth away from her room and that path led them to the gate. "Oh this is just brilliant," Rodney muttered as he looked disparagingly towards the DHD, "It's going to be like looking through a needle in a haystack to try and get her back."

"Think positively Rodney," John stated firmly, though he himself had to do some serious mental work to ensure that he didn't spin off into a panic. "We'll find her."

"Oh really?" asked Rodney. "How? I can pull the DHD command crystal but that's more than fifty gate addresses and—"

"—and I think that we should check out that house," Ronan interrupted, pointing down the lane way a little to where a small cottage stood. "Someone there might have seen something."

...

"I don't know what use I can be to you," said Elara, the lady of the house. "I saw no such woman being taken through the gate, though I do remember her coming through."

"Please," John begged. "I know that you've said that you were asleep at the time but was there anyone else in this home at the time, who might have been awake and who might have seen something?"

Elara sighed. "I am sorry," she apologized as she stood up. "But there was no one."

"Mama," came a quiet voice and four pairs of eyes went to the corner where Elara's daughter was standing.

"Hush Giana," the mother stated. "Hold your tongue."

"Giana?" asked John as he stood up, doing his best to not look imposing. "Can you help us? Did you see something."

Giana looked to her mom and shook her head. "I am sorry Mama, but I have to help them," the girl paused and turned back to John. "Yes," she answered. "I can help you, for I saw the woman you described being taken through the ring."

"I don't suppose that you know the symbols that were lit up?" asked Rodney.

The girl nodded.

"Please," John began as he extended his hand to Giana. "Show us."

...

Elizabeth looked around and saw that she was alone. She didn't know what was going on, but there was a nagging feeling that what she was seeing, wasn't exactly what she was supposed to be seeing. I am surprised, came the voice of Kolya in her head. You are quite strong. They will need more time to turn you. And that's when Elizabeth knew what was going on. She had been infected by nanites, just as she had been when she had been infected by Liam.

"You're not going to get anymore time Kolya," she stated aloud, knowing exactly what she needed to do and a gate materialized out of no where. "I'm going back to the real world."

...

Elizabeth opened her eyes just in time to see Kolya being shot by John Sheppard. The replicator version of their enemy fell to the ground. "And this time," John began in a seething tone. "Stay dead."

"John," Elizabeth warned as she stood up, watching as Kolya's body began twitching back to life. "He's a replicator. He's going to..."

What happened next was a little bit of a blur. Kolya attacked John, and the two of them struggled. Ronan tried to help but Kolya threw him against the wall so hard that when he fell, he stayed down. Rodney raced to Elizabeth's side. "Don't touch me," she stated as she backed away from him.

"Elizabeth?"

"I'm infected again," she stated as she backed up against a wall.

"You're what?"

"Never mind about me Rodney," Elizabeth ordered. "Help John."

Rodney nodded and began digging around in his pack.

"A little help would be nice Mckay," came John's grunt.

"I know," Rodney shouted back as his face lit up.

Elizabeth watched as Rodney pointed a gun at John. "No!" she began to cry out but instead of a bullet, or even a stun pulse, a different sort of energy came out of the gun and Kolya dissolved into little pieces. "Rodney?" she asked as she turned to face the scientist. "What was that?"

"Oh this?" Rodney asked looking rather pleased with himself. "Well this is our new ARG, came from the SGC earlier this week and well, I figured that one could never be too prepared."

"No," John agreed as he got to his feet. "You can't," he paused glanced at Elizabeth for only a moment before turning to Rodney. "Go help Ronan."

Rodney nodded and went over to the Stateatan who was beginning to come around. John moved closer to Elizabeth. "Please," she began, trying to back up even further.

"I know," he stated with a heavy sigh. "I heard."

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "But Kolya..."

"That bastard is dead now," John interrupted. "He can't hurt us anymore..." he paused and looked as Rodney helped Ronan to his feet. "Come on," he continued. "We should get back to Atlantis."

...

After being cleared by Keller and Carson who deduced that the nanites that were once again floating in her blood stream were inert, Elizabeth found herself on her balcony with a cup of coffee with John at her side. They were standing in silence, listening to the sound of the waver before John finally spoke up. "I knew that you weren't dead."

Elizabeth turned to look at him. "How."

"Well I knew that I didn't kill you."

"How?" she asked again. "Kolya,"

"He messed with my memory," John interjected. "And believe me it was really close for a while, but I still knew that there was no way that I could kill you."

"But if you had no memory,"

"I know that it doesn't make sense,"

"No," Elizabeth interjected as she put the coffee down on the railing. "It does."

"It does what?' asked John.

"Make sense," she continued. "I knew that you would come for me."

"Even though Kolya said that I was probably dead?'

Elizabeth nodded. "I'm sorry by the way,"

"For what?"

"For getting swept away."

John shrugged his shoulders. "Right that."

"You told me that he was trouble," Elizabeth stated. "You were right."

"My instincts are usually right," John stated.

Elizabeth smiled. "Your spidey sense."

He nodded. "Yeah that too."

They lapsed into silence while Elizabeth finished her coffee, and when she was done she turned towards John at the same moment he turned towards her. "You go first," he insisted, and Elizabeth sighed

"I have a question to ask you,"

"And what's that?"

"Why are we always the targets?"

John sighed. "Burden of command I guess."

"But," Elizabeth began, stopping only momentarily to choose her words.

"But what?" asked John.

"But doesn't it seem to be more than that."

"I don't know what you mean."

Elizabeth sighed. "We're always the targets, for each other."

John nodded. "I have noticed that. But it's bound to stop sooner or later."

"You really think so?"

"Well for one thing, Kolya's dead."

Elizabeth smiled. "You sure about that?"

John nodded. "I don't think that he can come back from being disintegrated."

"Yeah but, if it's not him... it's going to be someone else."

"Elizabeth," John began in a quiet voice. "Since when have you been a pessimist?"

"Since I've come here," she answered with another heavy sigh. "I've seen too much death."

"Elizabeth,"

"I"m sorry," she apologized. "But it feels as though we can't get anything right lately."

"We'll find our footing again," he insisted. "Eventually."

"I don't know if I can last that long,"

John reached out and took her hand. "I'll help you."

Elizabeth glanced to his hand and then his face. "Promise?" she finally asked.

John nodded knowing that he would do anything and be anyone for the woman standing before him. "I promise, just so long as you promise me something."

Elizabeth smiled. "And what's that?"

"Promise me that I won't lose you..."

Elizabeth searched his eyes, there was so much longing and desire there that she wasn't quite ready to fall into and so she did what she thought was best. She nodded her head and placed her hand on top of his. "I swear that you won't."

Author's Note: Hi all, no I'm not dead. I never thought that I'd fall back into this fandom, but I'm not leaving any story left unfinished anymore and I figured that it was high time to finish this little gem. I do hope that you enjoyed this chapter, even though it's been a long time coming and I hope that you'll leave a review.