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xoxoxoxoxxoxo

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Teyla's pain pierced through John's gut as if he himself had been stuck by a knife. John's movements were frenzied now as he twisted and struggled to free himself. Panic lanced through him stronger than he'd ever experienced before. Not even when the Wraith had fed off him. Then it had been only himself that he'd feared for. Now it was the woman he loved more than life itself and his child, his precious baby girl who he had been able to touch with his mind.

He managed to lean forward and get a solid grip on the floor with his feet but almost fell over when he heard Teyla's screams escalate and felt her anguish. Armstrong had lifted the knife but had moved it to another location to press against it again.

John went wild! He threw himself against the closest wall, right into a cabinet and felt the chair finally give way. The top separated from the bottom but he smashed himself again and again toward the cabinet oblivious to the cuts and blood he was now covered with. He needed to get to Teyla.

He was finally able to stand up and throw off much of the chair however the cuffs were still attached to his hands and feet and a few dowels still remained attached to the other end of the cuffs. He didn't care though and flew to the bed.

Armstrong had been distracted from what he was doing by the thrashing of John but had looked back to skim the knife again around the outside of Teyla's distended belly thinking Sheppard was just hurting himself more with his actions.

John rushed to the bed and grabbed Armstrong around the neck and flung him off Teyla. The Marine had dropped the knife and John took it and quickly cut the ropes binding Teyla's hands and feet then pulled the gag out of his mouth.

John lifted her shirt to check the damage and saw lots of blood. He wasn't sure how deep the wounds were though. Teyla started to rise and then her eyes froze in horror.

"John!" she cried and he felt something smash across his head, making the room swim for a few moments.

Then Armstrong threw aside the piece of chair and pushed John onto the floor. But Teyla was free now and swung the knife that had tortured her and freed her in his direction. It caught him in the arm and side and he flung himself back holding onto it as blood poured from the wound.

Teyla fell to her knees and tried to pull John to a standing position but Armstrong wrapped his good arm around her neck, pulled the knife from her hand and dragged her away from the bed.

John staggered to his feet and shouted, "Let her go, Armstrong!"

He could see the resolve in Teyla's eyes and knew she wouldn't stand for this any longer now that she was not tied. He waited anxiously, not really wanting Teyla to have to fight this lunatic but knowing if he tried to get closer the man could easily snap Teyla's neck. She would have to make the first move.

And luckily Armstrong had completely underestimated Teyla and the strength of a mother whose child is threatened. Teyla gave a groan and slumped in his arm as if her stomach hurt and when he loosened his hold to accommodate her movement, she struck. Her elbow flew back catching him right in the face and then she twisted out of his grasp and kicked him in the groin.

He dropped to his knees and John moved to kick him again in the gut, yelling, "Teyla, get out of here!"

Teyla only paused for a second then ran for the door. John moved to kick the man one more time when Armstrong recovered enough to grab John's foot and twist. John wasn't expecting this and fell backwards, jarring his already injured body once more.

He scrabbled quickly to get his feet under him but when he got up he saw Armstrong standing there with the deadly knife out in front of him. John could see some of Teyla's blood still clinging to the blade. And Armstrong was standing between him and the door.

"You said if I let her go I could do anything I wanted with you," Armstrong's voice rasped in John's direction.

John straightened up fighting the pain throbbing though him. "I think we're gonna change those rules. How about you put down the knife and I won't kill you."

Armstrong laughed as he looked at the weapon he had and John standing there with chair posts still hanging from his hands. He took a step forward with the knife and warned, "I'm gonna get pleasure out of carving you into little pieces, Sheppard. And I'll make sure you're alive until the very end to suffer through it all."

Armstrong took a few steps closer and John took a deep breath in but now that Teyla and the baby were out of harm's way he had less holding him back. He had less to lose. But that still didn't mean he wanted to die. And Teyla was still near enough that if Armstrong went looking for her she could still be in danger.

As Armstrong got close enough and swung the knife in John's direction, John took a step back but raised his arms in defense. That's when he saw that he could use those chair posts to help him. He swung his hands and the first post knocked the knife aside as the second he moved in the direction of Armstrong's head.

It made contact and the Marine staggered back a bit as John moved on the offensive. If he could take Armstrong down then he could get Teyla and take the van back to town. But the man still had the deadly looking knife.

John continued to drive him back until Armstrong bumped into the dresser against the wall. He was about to strike again when he saw the man pull something out of a basket sitting on top. His breath hitched when he saw that it was a gun. And it was now pointed right at him.

He took a step back as his eyes opened wide. He hadn't expected this but then the man was a Marine. He should have known he'd have more than just a knife at his disposal.

"This changes things a little doesn't it, Sheppard?" Armstrong sneered with a nasty glint in his eye. "I might suggest you go lay back down on the bed where your precious slut was not too long ago. Then I'm gonna have some fun with you. Too bad she isn't here to watch."

John gave a big sigh and turned as if he were going to obey the command but at the last second he swung his hand up and the post knocked the gun aside from pointing straight at him although it was still firmly in Armstrong's hand. But it was enough time to run across the room and head for the door. Right before he got there he felt a sharp pain burn though his shoulder and he stumbled to his knees. But he wasn't going down for the count.

He picked up the trash barrel and flung it at the man who was now charging him across the room. The contents spilled onto the floor and the metal cylinder crashed into him, sending him down.

John didn't wait to see if he had gotten back up; he just ran. Knowing Armstrong he'd be up again in a few moments and John couldn't afford to waste a precious second of time. He had to find Teyla and make sure she was okay.

His eyes darted in every direction and he took the path that seemed most like the one Teyla would have chosen. It was a good thing they knew each other so well. He just hoped he had chosen correctly.

As he ran he sent waves of thought out to see if perhaps Teyla could pick up his emotions and thoughts. The trees around him were thick and he stumbled a few times with the bruises from all the kicks he'd gotten compounded with the searing pain in his shoulder. He pulled his left arm in closer to his body to keep it from jostling the gunshot wound as he ran.

He wasn't sure how long he moved through the woods but after what was maybe ten or fifteen minutes he heard a small sound and then felt Teyla as surely as if she had touched him.

He turned and saw her come out from behind a tree and when she saw the blood coating his gray t-shirt and dripping down his arm, she ran to him.

"John!" She held his arm and looked nervously behind where he had come from.

John pulled her in close with his right arm and continued to move away from the cabin. "We need to keep moving. I don't know how much of a head start we'll have but I can't imagine he'll just give up and let us go."

He took another few steps and squeezed her against him. "Are you all right? How badly are you injured?"

"I am fine, John," Teyla reassured him. "The cuts are not very deep and I am able to walk without too much pain."

John paused for the briefest of moments and gazed down at her tear stained face. "And the baby?" But as he said this he could feel his little girl reach out to him with her mind. Teyla didn't bother to respond as she also knew that he had felt that she was well.

They began walking again, quickly as they could with their injuries but as they did, John made sure to send thoughts of love and comfort to their child. He could feel how grateful Teyla was that he was doing this. And so he sent his love and devotion to her as well.

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Armstrong threw aside the trash barrel and started to wade through the garbage then stopped for a second. His arm and side were stinging where the bitch had cut him and he had a bump on his forehead where the chair rail had hit a few times when Sheppard had swung it at him.

He went into the bathroom, wrapped a quick bandage around his arm and slapped an adhesive strip on his forehead and side. Then he shrugged on a light coat as he knew the nights got a little chilly in these woods and the sun would be going down in a little over an hour. He picked up a flashlight and tucked it in his pocket along with the gun he had shot Sheppard with. He quickly downed another beer and took the knife he had used earlier then headed out the door.

Sheppard and his whore wouldn't get away that easily. He knew these woods pretty well after spending the last few weeks here and they didn't. Plus they were both wounded. That was a pretty big advantage for him. And he was planning on using it. He had come too far in his little scheme for revenge to be stopped now.

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xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

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Ronon was the first one out of the vehicle once it had come to a stop. O'Neill was surprised that he had even waited for it to stop. The Satedan had practically growled at every red light or stop sign they had paused at. Luckily the last half hour had been only country roads leading to this hunting cabin in what appeared to be very dense woods. Luckily Hawkins knew where he was going.

The two SUV's pulled over and stopped a few hundred yards from where the cabin was located so as not to alert Armstrong to their presence. They didn't want him spooked and going off and killing Sheppard and Teyla. If they were still alive. It had been almost a full day since they had been missing.

"Doc," O'Neill motioned for Carson. "You stay behind everyone else and wait for the all clear signal. The rest of you spread out and surround the place. We don't want him getting out of there."

"Not alive anyway," grunted Ronon under his breath as he moved past the white paneled van.

Carter and Teldy moved to the right and Mehra and Hawkins moved to the left while Ronon and O'Neill moved to the main door. When they saw that the door was open they cautiously approached it and peered in listening for any sound of movement. When they didn't hear anything they rushed inside.

The place was empty. Jack clicked his walkie talkie a few times and said, "All clear."

The others entered the one room building and looked around anxiously. Ronon came out of the bathroom where he had been checking for people.

"Nothing!" Ronon howled. "Where the hell are they? I thought they'd be here."

"I think they were," Teldy replied and pointed to the ropes that were still attached to the bed posts. Her face fell as she pointed to the sheets. "There's blood all over the ropes and some right here in a few spots."

"Yeah, and look at this," Dusty said as she picked up some broken spokes from an obviously smashed chair. "And a lot of these are covered in blood too. The question is what happened and where are they?"

Carson examined the blood on the bed and became nervous wondering exactly how badly his friends had been hurt. There was only so much he could do for them out here in the woods. If they needed further medical treatment they'd have to be transferred to a hospital. The bag he had only contained rudimentary supplies.

"There was definitely a struggle," Hawkins noted as he scanned the room and saw the trash on the floor and the broken chair.

"I'm guessing Sheppard and Teyla found a way to get free and tried to overpower Armstrong," Ronon surmised. "I bet Sheppard was in the chair and broke it to get out."

"Well, these ropes were cut with a knife," Sam added as she looked around the bed. "If Teyla was in the bed then maybe John cut her loose. But where was Armstrong and where are they now?"

"Out in the woods, running for their lives," suggested Dusty.

"Sheppard wouldn't run," Ronon objected. "He'd stay and try to get rid of Armstrong."

"I don't know, Ronon," Teldy contemplated. "If he was by himself, absolutely but remember Teyla was here. You know how the Colonel feels about her. He'd never take a chance of her getting hurt further especially as she's pregnant. He'd want her out of here as soon as he could."

"And all this blood," Carter added, "They may not have been in any shape to do anything other than run. Armstrong may be a bit older than John but he's still a trained Marine who was active duty until just recently. Depending on how badly John's hurt, he may not have been able to take him on. And Teyla's hardly in any shape to be fighting either."

"So let's go find them," Ronon insisted and Dusty and Teldy nodded vigorously.

Hawkins looked at his watch and said, "It'll be dark in under an hour and it gets cold here at night. I suggest we set up a command here and send units out in an organized pattern. We have search and rescue people who are trained in this sort of thing."

"But they're used to finding lost hunters and kids not crazed Marines who are bent on killing," O'Neill told him. "I'd feel better if we had trained law enforcement or military on this only."

Hawkins nodded agreement and started making some phone calls. Ronon paced back and forth in the enclosed space. He finally started for the door. O'Neill stepped in front of him.

"If we only have an hour of daylight left," Ronon reasoned, "then let me go and see if I can at least track which direction they went. We can't let Armstrong get too much of a lead. If he finds them first …"

O'Neill knew the big man was right. If Sheppard hadn't taken out Armstrong there was a reason and it was possible that it was because one or both of them was injured. He couldn't run the risk of Armstrong finding them before they did.

"Okay, but take a radio and a GPS so you can give us your position if you see any clues."

Teldy looked at Mehra and stood up to grab a radio. "We're going too. We'll stay in a similar location to Ronon but spread out a bit to cover more ground."

Hawkins nodded and suggested, "There are a few wind breakers in the back of the SUV. Grab one before you go and take a flashlight."

Teldy grabbed a few and saw that they said POLICE on the back. She shrugged it on then handed Dusty one. Ronon had already started looking around the area and heading away from the cabin. The women swiftly followed giving a wave to Carter and O'Neill.

Sam gazed over at Carson who was examining the bed sheets. "Carson, how bad do you think it is?"

"It's hard to tell," the doctor answered back. "It's not a lethal amount but it's more than I'd like to see. I'm especially worried about the location of the blood on this mattress. If Teyla was indeed laying here then the largest amount of blood stains are … right where the baby would be."

Sam took a deep breath and thought back to when John and Teyla had been tortured by Sora and Shiana. She knew John had been in agony thinking that something could have happened to their baby and she knew now wouldn't be any different. Moisture filled her eyes and she blinked it back as best she could.

Jack saw his wife's face and knew what she was thinking. And he hated that they couldn't do any more about it than they were. It would take a while to mobilize more people for a search but that couldn't be helped. He walked closer to her and took her hand and squeezed it.

"We'll find them," he said softly and hoped that he was telling the truth.

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xoxoxoxoxoxox

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