Thanks to: Deana, SJ, ayrstar, female'wraith, CharmedAli, Alexzander Stark, Ocean, Naomi, Padme18, Jackie, and Esmilla for being my reviewers for the previous chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis or the characters. This is set after Phantoms but before The Return Pt. 1! Song Lyrics: Waiting For Yesterday by 12 Stones.

Watch the sun steal Yesterday,
Hiding all emotion - far away.
Days spent wondering why this life is so cold,
And nothing ever changes.

Waiting For Yesterday — III

October 14th, 9:41

Teyla moved quietly through the halls, her hand on her gun and her eyes staring ahead of her. The being controlling her was much too strong to break free from simply of her own will, so she was forced to watch as her own hands pulled the trigger on each guard they passed. Some, she missed completely, and others ...

... she could only pray for their lives.

But it had been hours since anyone had found her—them. They hadn't crossed paths with anyone in a long time, and she was hoping it would stay that way.

"Stop struggling. You'll only make it worse for yourself."

Teyla could feel her body moving in surprise at the voice in her head. She tried to speak to it.

"Who are you?"

"Who I am is no concern."

"What do you want?"

There was silence following Teyla's last question and she began to feel scared as she heard footsteps behind them. Apparently, the being controlling her didn't notice, and when it spoke back to Teyla, its voice was low.

"Call me Jasper. And what I want is to get free from here, this planet you live on, and go back to my people."

"Why me?"

It was a question that had been bothering her since she had first fell under the control of Jasper.

"Because it is what my masters wish."

There was silence again until Jasper spoke once more.

"They want you because you are the only one who they believe can solve our problem."

She was almost afraid to ask it, but before she could stop herself, Teyla knew she had voiced her question.

"What... problem?"

"You cannot hope to escape me, or my masters, so I will tell you what you wish to know. My people have been dying as soon as they reach adulthood. I am one of the Wraith, and we can live for a very long time, depending on whether people like you come in contact with us or not. I myself have a child, and he is close to the age where he will first have to feed. He will die soon. We cannot explain it, but we know that we cannot raise our own. One small girl was raised by a human, and she lived past the age of any of the other children."

The words stopped briefly, and Teyla held her breath, waiting for Jasper to continue. When she didn't speak again, Teyla said,

"You are Wraith. I have hated your kind since the day I was born. I will not help your people."

"Oh, but you will not have a choice. We don't know what it is that is killing all of our young, but we believe we have a solution. You, Teyla, in a very short time, are going to give birth to a Wraith child."

Any response she might have had was cut off by the soft whisper behind her.

"Teyla. It's me."

10:02

John didn't know how, but he knew where he'd find her. His feet moved quickly and quietly against the floor as he ran; he had to find her fast. He needed to, and he wanted to. Rounding another corner, he grasped his gun tighter, although he knew he woudn't use it unless he really had to.

He was breathing hard, and there was a sharp, constant pain ripping through his chest, but still John continued on. The blood oozing through the bandages was slowly becoming more and more, and it was beginning to color his short a light maroon color. He was in a lot more pain than he had let on; even the medicine that Carson had given him wasn't able to heal him enough for this type of activity.

He didn't have long; he needed to find her, and he needed to do it quick.

He was just about to stop and take a breath when he heard the quiet shuffling of feet against the floor. Screeching to a halt, he leaned up against the wall and tried desperately to calm his breathing. He hadn't come this far to give himself away. Peaking around the corner, he realized that he was right in his suspicions; it was Teyla.

She was moving slowly and quietly across the floor, her bare feet making almost no noise.

When she rounded another corner, he did, too, but made sure he was at least a couple of steps behind her the whole time. As he waited patiently for her to walk around yet another corner, a million thoughts ran through his head.

How was he going to capture her? Teyla ... no, that thing controlling her, didn't mind shooting anyone, and he wasn't too keen on being shot ... again. And after he managed to capture her, what would he do? What would they all do?

Deciding to worry about the capturing part first, and the other part later, he took a deep breath and walked out in the middle of the hallway, his gun held at his side and his heart beating in his chest.

"Teyla," he whispered quietly. "It's me."

She turned around and took out her gun. As she pressed the trigger, John knew for sure that the voice ringing in his ears wasn't that of the being controlling Teyla.

"John ... run!"

Making up his mind, John dove out of the way as two bullets flew past him.

He didn't want to get shot again.

10:20

"We didn't find anything."

"You didn't find anything. I found plenty of things, but none of them were human, and most were rather disturbing," Rodney said, turning to Ronon and rolling his eyes. Elizabeth raised her eyebrow at the two men and Rodney explained, "I found a lab. One, mind you, that I don't want to return to."

"Fine. Have you heard from Colonel Sheppard?" Elizabeth asked, looking back and forth between the two men in front of her. They'd been searching for over an hour when they'd been called back.

"No. He requested radio silence about thirty minutes ago," Ronon reported, folding his arms over his chest. "Why couldn't we just check in over the radio? Why did we have to come all the way back?"

Elizabeth just tapped her radio and said, "Carson, everyone but John is here."

After accepting the doctor's response, Elizabeth replied to Ronon and Rodney, "Carson found something he needs to tell us, but he wanted everyone that was a part of the team to be present. He said we can't wait for John, however."

"Oh." And with that, Ronon sat down in the only free chair in the room, leaving Rodney to give him a dirty look and lean up against the wall.

They barely had to wait five minutes before Carson was walking hurriedly inside the room. The look on his face suggested that the news he had wasn't good. He began talking immediately.

"Before I say anything, I need to know: when was the last time that Teyla was in contact with the Wraith?"

Both men thought about it for a second and Ronon shrugged.

"A couple months, maybe three, when Ford had us on the Enzyme and we were on the Hive."

"Months ... so this is bloody possible."

"Carson, please ... " Elizabeth began, frowning slightly as she stared at the flustered doctor. He took a deep breath and turned to face them once again.

"Teyla's pregnant. I took blood from her earlier, and if a woman is far enough along in pregnancy ... never mind that, but I found this out two days ago, and she asked me to do a paternity test because she's not ever been with a man that she knows-"

"Carson!"

This time the protest came from Ronon. Everyone in the room was looking both shocked and slightly nervous.

"Right. Well, she's eleven weeks along, so I did a CVS test. I just got the results back, and honestly, I didn't know if the child survived during the time she was sick, but after seeing the results of this test, I know why Teyla was dying before, and how she healed so rapidly. And I'm quite positive that the baby is alive."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked nervously, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.

"The child she is carrying is not human; it's a Wraith."

Silence was thick in the room; no one spoke, afraid of shattering the silence that had fallen over them all. Finally, it was Ronon who said something.

"You're sure the kid's a Wraith?"

"Yes."

Elizabeth took a deep breath and stood up, trying to get all of her emotions under control. Everything that had been said was still fresh in her mind, and she was sure that reality hadn't set in yet. She asked, "How does that explain her being so sick, and healing like she did?"

"Eleven weeks along ... that's about the time a mother will miscarry if there is a problem with the child, or if something happened to the mother. Teyla's activity with Colonel Sheppard while sparing could have easily caused a miscarriage in any woman, but the Wraith child stopped the miscarriage, using Teyla strength and life to do so. When the baby was fully healed, it concentrated its strength on healing its mother, because without her alive, it would die, too."

"So is it the baby Wraith controlling her?"

"No, I don't believe so. At eleven weeks into pregnancy, the child couldn't even hope to control Teyla."

"Woah, woah, wait a second here ... we can't possibly let Teyla have a Wraith kid!" Rodney burst out, shaking his head; he had previously been too shocked to voice his opinions; it wasn't everyday that you learned that your friend and teammate was pregnant with a child of the enemy.

"Aye, we can't, but we have to."

"Why?" Ronon asked, his voice piercing the air. Carson looked from one face to another, and then began to explain.

"We have to trust in Colonel Sheppard to bring Teyla back, and when he does, we have to lock her up and keep her that way until she can break free of the hold that the Wraith have on her. The child stole Teyla's life when she was miscarrying, what will it do if we try and abort it?"

Realization fell upon everyone.

"It'll kill her if we try and kill it," Rodney observed, sighing as he fell back into the chair that Ronon had vacated when he had jumped up from surprise.

"So we kill it when it's born," Ronon said, leaning up against the wall.

"Now wait just a minute," Carson broke in. "We can't kill the wee one once he's been born! We know that Wraith children can live on human food for a number of years after birth; I can use that time to complete the retro-virus."

"So we're just going to let a Wraith live among us?"

Ronon was looking more and more agitated as their conversation went on. But before Carson could speak again, Elizabeth walked over and stood between the two men, frowning as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at both of them.

"We won't decide anything right now. We'll wait for John to bring Teyla back, and once she can gain control of herself again, we'll ask her what she wants to do."

Carson sighed and nodded. "Right. Well, I need to get back to work. Oh, and we didn't lose any more men. I didn't use the Adoien drug in anyone except for Colonel Sheppard, as you know, and Major Eric. His wounds weren't serious, but for some reason he crashed on the table, and I couldn't think of anything else to do. But they all pulled through."

Elizabeth nodded and walked back over to her chair, slowly sitting down.

"Thank you, Carson. Ronon, Rodney ... you can join Major Lorne's search team if you like, or you can search on your own. Right now ... I think the only people that can get to Teyla are the ones close to her. John ... and the two of you."

They nodded and walked out, leaving Elizabeth to thoughts consumsed by the choices they were all going to have to make.

10:20

John ducked behind the wall and took a deep breath in as the gunfire continued. He looked down at his shirt, realizing that the blood seeping out was coming faster; he was breathing harder, and his movements were becoming slower.

"Teyla, come on! It's me! Stop shooting!"

She didn't pay any attention.

"You're gonna run out of bullets!"

The gunfire stopped and John sighed in relief, cocking his head to the side. She was more concerned for her bullets than his life.

"I am not Teyla; my name is Jasper."

John rolled his eyes as he dared a peak out from the side of the wall. The bullet that was fired missed his nose by inches; he pulled himself behind the wall in seconds and didn't look out again.

"Jasper, huh? Well, who are you, Teyla's evil twin?"

He broke off and coughed, wincing as bolts of pain seemed to run through his nerves. He needed to hurry, and Jasper wasn't making it easy. John closed his eyes and took a deep breath in when he realized what he had to do. He put his gun on the ground and stepped out in front of Teyla, his hands at his side.

"Look, Jasper or whoever the hell you are. Just ... can we talk about this?"

She raised her gun. Not a good sign.

"Fine, no talking then."

He shot her a nervous smile, but soon, it fell and his eyes went wide when a deep, searing pain ripped through his whole body. He knew what had happened in seconds; one of his wounds had broken open. The pain medication that Carson had given him had worn off hours ago. Pressing his hand to his chest, John wasn't at all surprised when he moved his fingers away and saw his hand stained scarlet.

"Aw, crap."

He slumped to the ground, the pain in his chest making it hard to breathe. The larger wound, the one that had been inflicted to allow for surgery, had opened and it was all he could do to slow the bleeding.

"Jo... hn?"

He looked up from his spot on the floor and felt a small smile return to his lips. "Heh. Teyla. Well, didn't go... according to plan... but it's you now, r-right?"

She dropped fown beside him, her hands shaking as she reached out for his radio.

"It's getting... harder to breathe, Teyla. Call Carson, if you... wouldn't mind."

He could tell it was as hard for her to keep in control as it was for him to breathe. Her fingers were shaking when she pressed the radio button, and her voice was, too. She whispered a few words into the radio and then shrugged off her jacket, pressing it to his wound to try and stop the bleeding.

He smiled.

"Good to... have ya back."

"John... I am sorry," Teyla whispered. Her eyes were beginning to slowly turn from green back to the chocolate brown that he had known so well.

"Just don't... let her... gain control... again."

John close his eyes and tried to take small, short breaths. It seemed to work a little. The thought that Carson was on the way, and that Teyla was herself, if only for a short time, helped him open his eyes once more.

It was only seconds after Teyla's eyes suddenly turned green again and she screamed in pain that he heard footsteps coming toward them. Carson dropped to his knees beside John and injected something into his arm just as Teyla's form, almost all the way down the hall now, fell limp to the floor; she'd been shot with the Wraith stunner that Major Lorne was carrying.

"She gonna... be all right, doc?" John whispered, looking to where two other marines had leaned down beside Teyla and bound her hands again.

"Aye, she should. But you concentrate on yourself now, son. You did a good job, even if it was reckless and stupid."

"Heh. Thanks. I... think."

Carson smiled at him once before he called out for a stretcher so they could move John back into the infirmary.

"You'll be all right son, just hang in there a little longer."

And finally, John closed his eyes.

—TBC—

Wow! Twelve reviews for the last chapter. I feel loved. Know what that does? It makes me update faster. XD Hmm ... who thinks what of this chapter?

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