Jasminesmommy - Yeah, that's what I was going for. Something a little different. It was initially supposed to be either zombies or a nightmare, but I did zombies already, and this is what came out.

x Varda x - Thank you :) I wanted to point out it was a dream, without making it totally obvious right away. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

XX-Samantha-XX - I'm glad you enjoy them. :)

Shadows-of-Realm - Well, I tried to add a little to the story to explain that. I've heard of theories (they might be completely fictional, I heard them years ago from a place I don't remember), that if a mind believed an injury it suffered was real enough, then it could certainly happen. Ok, so bullet wounds might be pushing it, but I believe the mind can be capable of things we haven't even discovered or fathomed yet. Thank you for pointing out that I hadn't explained that. I'm hoping the little addition I made to the chapter helps future readers to understand it a little better.

And I'm sorry if the dream sequences were confusing. I was going for somewhat abstract. How John had the retrovirus when it was cured, and how his team didn't trust him, and how Teyla got dressed and a weapon in seconds flat. Or how Rodney died and came back as evil Rodney, only to die again. I'm not sure if I can explain them any better.

Puddle-jumper38 - Hm, I think he'd be freaked and need some time to think it through. That and he'd not go anywhere near John when he's wielding a gun, or near Wraith. I think that, later seasons Rodney would be a bit more understanding. He'd realize that John never meant to hurt him, you know?

Debbie418uk2 - Hm, I could have explained that better. I meant more for all the civilians and most of the scientific staff, who need to be wide awake for their shifts. When it gets dark, I always imagined the city would have a skeletal crew watching over it, as everyone else got rested up for the next day. A night shift, of course, but most of the people sleeping.

I did notice the 'Katie's Gift' similarity, and I wasn't sure if I should put it as a tag, because of the differences? I'll do it just to be safe. I didn't really think too much about 'Before I Sleep', but you're right. I put the tag in to be safe.

Well, for me, the twist was that Rodney didn't die in the end. LOL. No, that's mean. I wouldn't actually kill him off.

About five more chapters to go.

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John covered his eyes and frowned as he stood with his face towards a tree. For a moment, he hesitated.

"I can't hear you!"

He had to bite his lip to keep from smiling. Taking a second to compose himself, he took a deep breath and turned around, dropping his hands and staring at the person standing a few feet away. "Come on, do I really have to do this??" He put some whine into his voice, though honestly, he didn't mind at all. "There's gotta be better-"

"No!" The young boy across from him frowned and shook his head quickly. "I like this game!"

Of course you do. Giving a forced put upon sigh, John shook his head and turned around, grinning once his back was to the boy. Putting his hands over his eyes, he started counting. "One...two...three...four..."

Behind him, Jin turned and dashed off into the woods. He knew that he wasn't to go far from the settlement, but he'd recently found a spot he was sure to be the best hiding spot. Racing for it, he faintly heard John calling 'Ready or not, here I come!' and picked up his pace, his laughter escaping from his mouth as he went. He dashed through the trees and ducked under low-hanging branches. Finally, he came upon the place he was searching. The very reason he didn't give John a higher number was because he didn't need to search for his hiding place.

He took a second to look up at the massive cliff in front of him. Then his gaze shifted down to the debris that a recent tremor had shaken loose. It was invisible to the naked eye, but Jin knew better. Racing forward, he climbed up on to the first boulder, then climbed down amongst the other boulders. There, there was a large opening blocked from prying eyes by a large boulder in front of it. It basically looked like a big hole in the ground. It was easy for a grown up to get into, even a big one like McKay or Ronon, so it was super easy for little Jin to get into.

"Jin...?"

Spinning in place, he giggled a little by accident, before covering his mouth and dropping down into the opening. It was farther down than he'd expected, and the last time he'd been down there, he'd had a rope attached to the boulders above to climb back up with. The ground was rocky and uneven, but this was his little spot. Staying there, he knew it wouldn't be easy for John to find him, and he waited patiently, sitting down against the dirt wall and grinning to himself.

(John's POV)

"Huh, whered he go?" Looking around, I walked through the woods with a frown. "I'm sure I heard him giggling." Ok, so it was more a panting laughter, but, well... Stepping carefully over a log, I glanced down at the ground and grinned to myself. "Gotcha!"

Footprints in the dirt. Barely visible, and half concealed by the leaves, but they were there, nonetheless and I planned to follow them. Making my way down the dirt path, I spotted tiny broken branches on some of the bushes and more footprints in the dirt. I followed them quietly a ways before looking up and frowning again. The cliff? The Athosians didn't like the children running around the cliffs since the last tremor they had. It wasn't severe, or a sign of danger, but there had been quite a tremor in the ground, and during a jumper sweep, we'd found that debris had fallen from the cliff face. Unfortunately, Jin's little footprints trailed towards the cliffs and I felt my eyes narrow in both concern and a little irritation. They weren't supposed to go over there! By rights, we shouldn't even have been this close.

Taking off, I rushed forward, keeping a careful eye out for his footprints and any more broken branches. As I suspected, they led towards the cliffs and as I began to get closer, I stopped and looked around. Patting my chest, I winced when I realized I wasn't carrying my scanner. I'd made sure to keep it on me when I'd left Atlantis, but I'd taken my P90 off, along with my tac vest, back at the settlement, leaving them with Teyla. Not smart, I know, but here I thought I was just going to have a game of hide-and-go-seek.

"Jin...?" I paused and looked around, realizing with a heavy heart that the ground turned too stony to find any footprints, and there were no plants here to break the branches of. I noticed a slight indent in the wall structure of the cliff and walked forward. That's when I heard a giggle. My head shot up and I ran ahead, seeing Jin's disappearing between some boulders. What the...?! I began to rush forward, when something caught my eyes, and I felt them widen.

There, in the boulders near where Jin had disappeared, were some small remnants of a Wraith dart, half imbedded in the rocks, showing it had to have been thousands of years old. Maybe it was remains from the war 10 000 years ago, I had no idea, but my heart sank some more. I tapped my radio. "Rodney, come in. Do you read me?"

There was static a moment, then Rodney's annoyed voice came through. "I'm a little busy here, Colonel. I'm in the middle of scanning... You know what? Never mind. What?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I just thought you might wanna know I found the remains of a Wraith dart by the cliffs."

Surprisingly, it was Teyla who answered. "A dart? Here?? Are my people in danger??"

"No. Teyla, relax. It looks....well, pretty old, to say the least. And there's really only a few tiny parts here."

"But what are you doing by the cliffs? I thought you were playing... What was it...?"

"Hide-and-go-seek. Yeah, I was, but-crap!" My eyes widened as I recalled Jin disappearing between the boulders. "I followed Jin here!"

"What is Jin doing at the cliffs?!" Teyla sounded pretty upset.

"Look, I'm gonna go get him. you guys might just wanna get out here and check out the remains, ok? Sheppard out!" Tapping my radio again, I ran forward and made short work of the first boulder. Looking around, I noticed numerous other boulders and frowned deeply. "Jin...?" I climbed forward unsteadily. Hopping to the next boulder, I slipped and collapsed to my knees, bashing them on the hard rock surface and hissing in pain. "Oh, man! That's gonna hurt later!" I groaned to myself. Hell, it hurts now! "Jin! Listen to me, we need to get out of here!"

There was a hint of a voice that sounded like it was coming from a little ways below me. I carefully looked around and climbed to the next boulder more carefully, standing up and wincing as my knees protested. "There's a Wraith ship!" I called, hoping that would get him.

"John!"

My head shot in the direction of the voice, and I hopped to the next boulder unsteadily, before quickly hopping to the one to the left. I noticed that it was like a small field of boulders that I was hopping across. Looking down, though, I noticed why it sounded like Jin's voice was coming from so far away. Grabbing my pen light from my pants pocket, I shone it down the hole and squinted. The light was weak, but I notice Jin down there, looking up at me with fear, and sighed in relief. "There you are! I thought you were told to stay away from the cliffs!" I scolded with a frown.

"Wraith?!" His voice was so high pitched and filled with fear

Shaking my head, I sighed. Then I got a better look at the hole he was in and...it wasn't a hole. It was an opening of some sort, that seemed to lead a little ways under the rocky cliff. It was quite a ways down, and from what I could make out of the ground, which wasn't much, it looked pretty uneven.

"Wraith?!?" He repeated louder.

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Then I got down flat on my stomach, or, as flat as I could, considering I was on a boulder, and held out my hand. "Take my hand."

He reached up, but his hand was still a few inches away. His eyes widened with fear and realization. "It's too far." He seemed to stretch up a little more, and his fingers brushed mine. "I... I can't reach!"

"Colonel!"

Startling a little, I pulled my hand back, and looked over my shoulder to see Teyla and Ronon climbing easily amongst the boulders, towards me. McKay was having a much harder time, but amazingly enough, even he was coming over. Well, ok. He made it to the top of the first boulder and his face turned white when he saw all the others. He just stood there. They must have been closer than I thought, since I wasn't expecting them for a while yet.

"I can't reach Jin." I told Teyla as she reached the boulder next to me. Looking down into the opening, I locked eyes with Jin. "Ok, stand back, I'm gonna come down and help you." When he obediantly moved back, his shoulders bowing as Teyla didn't even wait for him to get out of the hole to berate him for coming to the cliffs, I jumped down, wincing and crying out in shock as I went over on my ankle. Unfortunatly, I hadn't realized the ground was covered in sharp rocks, or the big stone I landed on until I went over sideways. It was such an odd feeling. It hurt like hell, but at the same time, I couldn't move my ankle. I could see my foot laying there limply as I struggled to move my ankle, and panicked quietly.

Then it moved. Just a little, and it was almost completely numb, but it moved. I felt the relief wash through me and sighed a moment in relief, spotting Jin crouching beside me with a worried look. "It's ok." I stated quietly to him, forcing a smile as I moved my ankle a little more. The pain faded to a dull ache, and the numbness refused to fade, but moving it meant it probably wasn't broken, so you can imagine my relief.

"John!"

Looking up at the sound of Teyla's voice, I waved my hand as bright lights flashed into the hole. "I'm ok!" I called, hissing as I grabbed a sturdy surface on the all and slowly stood up right. Great. For the briefest second, I thought I saw a shimmer of light, but pain shot up my ankle, and I winced, leaning on the wall for support. This was gonna be hard enough to begin with. "We're gonna need some rope!" I could lift Jin, sure, but then how was I supposed to get out of here?

Ronon crouched down on the boulder I'd been standing on before, and reached his hand down, even as Teyla pulled back enough to call Captain Erickson and get them to bring some rope out. "Can you lift him?"

Nodding, I limped over, trying to ignore the blinding pain that shot up my ankle with every step, and stood behind Jin. I took a moment to figure out how far Ronon was from us and I crouched down, putting my hands on Jin's hips. "Reach for Ronon's hand when I lift you, ok?" I instructed him before taking a deep breath. Closing my eyes, I grunted and groaned as I lifted. Jin wasn't heavy, but my ankle was threatening to give out under me. I managed to get him up, and I felt his weight lift out of my hands. Letting him go, I leaned agains the wall and panted, my head swimming even as I lifted my ankle off the ground.

"Got you." I heard Ronon say triumphantly.

Looking up, I watched as he put Jin down beside him, and the little Athosian boy hopped over to join Teyla, who hugged him tight and once again scolded him for taking off as he had. Then, a strangely familiar growl behind me caught my attention. "...Oh, crap!" Spinning in place, I watched as a Wraith raced out of the darkness, his feeding hand extended towards my chest. "Crap!" I grabbed my handgun and took quick aim, shooting him twice in his hand and ducking and rolling out of the way as he screamed and kept running at me. Coming up against a wall, I winced and laid there, unable to see clear enough to move. My ankle screamed in protest and tears came to my eyes, blurring my vision even worse. Ok, not a simple sprain then.

I felt something hit my hand, and yelped as it both startled me, and hurt enough to cause me to lose my grip on my gun. I heard it clatter some distance away and focused just in time to see the Wraith bending down, his feeding hand raised to strike at my chest.

"Sheppard!"

I got a good look at the Wraith, and noticed it seemed older and thinner than the others I'd seen. It hit me he must have been from the dart, but then, how had he lasted so long without feeding? The Athosians hadn't mentioned any of their people going missing, or dying mysteriously. If he'd come from a recent ship or the space gate, there would have been a culling, I was certain.

He raised his hand and snarled as he gripped tightly at my shirt, holding me in place. I raised my hand and gripped his which was holding on to my shirt, even as my other hand shot out and intercepted his other hand, which had shot towards me. We stayed like that, grappling, him to feed and me to live...

A blast of red lit up the opening, and something flashed out of the corner of my eye, even as the Wraith grunted in surprise and pain and fell to the ground next to me, dead. Glancing over, there was a small panel half buried in the dirt wall. It was dark and seemed dead, but it reminded me of the control panel of a Wraith dart.

"Sheppard, you ok?" Turning, I watched as Ronon dropped gracefully into the hole, not tripping over anything, and he stalked over to me, his blaster raised at the Wraith. Once he was at my side, he brutally kicked the Wraith away from me before turning to me. "Where'd he come from?" He held out his hand.

Taking it, I winced and hissed as I stood up, my back aching from rolling over sharp stones, and my ankle throbbing, though I kept my weight off it. "I think..." Grunting a little, I limped over to my gun, which was outlined at the very edge of the area we were in, still lit up by Teyla's flashlight, which was sitting precariously on a rock, pointing down. "I think it came from that..." I gestured to where I'd seen the panel. "The remains of the dart."

"How's that possible? I thought the dart was really old."

"Independent power source, probably." I stated with a sigh, leaning against the opposite wall. "If my guess it right, the Wraith probably hibernated in the storage device, and when it was activated, it was pre-programmed to rematerialize him."

"How was it activated?" Ronon frowned deeply, keeping his blaster half up, like he was expecting to get attacked still.

Shaking my head, I glanced up to where Teyla sat on the boulder, Jin in her lap, and both looking at us worriedly. "I don't know, but... Jin...?" I raised my voice so he could hear me. "Have you been down here before?"

He paused and shifted awkwardly in Teyla's lap, earning her a confused look, even as her eyes seemed to shine with the faintest glimmer of realization. "...Yes..."

Frowning for a moment, I nodded. "And did you touch this panel down here?"

He hesitated again before nodding. "Yes..."

"Did it light up or anything?"

He shook his head. "I...don't know. I didn't stay long. It didn't do anything when I was down here."

That made me frown even deeper. "That's true. If the Wraith was awoken when Jin touched the panel, why didn't he feed on Jin when he was down here...?" I took a good look around, trying to figure it out.

"What's going on over there?!"

Hearing Rodney's voice, I snapped my fingers. "Get him down here!" If I couldn't figure it out, maybe he could. "And where the hell's that rope?!"

Teyla tapped her radio, frowning at me, probably for my choice of language, and began speaking in it, looking for Captain Erickson.

It took longer than I would have liked for Rodney to come over, but apparently, he'd chosen to take the ground route, even though it meant slower going and climbing over smaller rocks and boulders. Finally, he made it to the hole and leaned over. "What's going on?"

"Get down here!" I called, having sat down against the dirt wall. "There's a panel down here you need to see!"

"Oh, and I'm just supposed to magically fly down there, or something?" He shot back sarcastically. "You practically broke your leg, and you're you. I'm not Ronon or you, and I like my legs functioning the way they are, just fine, thank you."

"Ok, I guess I'll just have to wait and get Radek out here, I'm sure he won't mind being the braver one."

"I'm brave!" He shouted indignantly. Looking around the edge, he frowned. "I just don't wanna be careless...or a vegetable."

"Fine, look, it's the control system to a Wraith dart." I explained, standing up and making a face before limping over to it. Taking Ronon's light, I shone it at the surface. "It's old, and I don't think there's any power left, but we're trying to figure out why it activated and released a Wraith after probably thousands of years of being inactive."

"Jin probably activated some pre-programmed system when he was down here last."

Ok, so he heard some of what we'd been talking about. "Already thought of that. If he had, why didn't it attack him when he was down here earlier today?"

"Maybe he knew that if he waited, a bigger, tastier meal would come alone." Rodney stated sarcastically with a frown. "Why ask me? Look, did he activate anything when he was down here earlier? Maybe it needed him to press a certain button or something." He sighed loudly. "This would go so much better if I could see it." Seeing me opening my mouth, he glared at me. "And I'm not pulling an Indiana McKay and jumping down there."

"Look, I was here." Resisting the urge to grin, I looked back at the console. "I saw him at the far edge of the hole, right below where you are now."

"But were you here the whole time?"

"I didn't touch anything this time." Jin raised his hand timidly. "I didn't want to make any noise that would attract John to my hiding place." He sat curled up next to Teyla, leaning against her.

"Did you touch it?" McKay asked, turning back to me with a raised eyebrow.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?! I don't have night vision, and I couldn't see squat down here, earlier!" Frowning for a moment, I tried to recall what happened since I'd dropped into the hole. "I came down here, hurt my ankle..." Said ankle was still aching like a pain in the ass. "Leaned on the..." Reaching out, I looked to the ground and tried to place where I was when I'd gotten up. "Wait..." Frowning for a moment, I turned, the light on the ground. Figuring out where I'd been, I reached out as I had before and found the same solid surface.

"What...?"

Turning to the surface I'd leaned against to get up, I shone the light on it and saw my hand laying directly on some of the buttons to the controls. I recalled them being the same ones that activated the beam, before. "Oh shi-"

"Colonel!"

Jumping a little, I looked up and noticed as Captain Erickson arrived with the rope. "Here!"

"John, what happened??" Teyla looked at me anxiously, waiting my answer.

Swallowing heavily, I wondered how I was going to explain that it had been me. My touch is what revived the starving Wraith.

(Conference room, Atlantis)

Sitting back in my seat, I sighed. "It was me. When I went down after Jin, I fractured my ankle on landing." I gestured to my raised foot which had been bandaged and was sitting on a chair at the moment. "When I reached out to grab on to the wall for support, to stand up, my hand was on the controls for the Wraith beam."

Rodney nodded, looking at a data pad. "My scans confirm that. It looks like it took a moment for the last little bit of power remaining to rematerialize the Wraith, and in that time, John had gotten Jin out of the hole, leaving him as the only available target for the starving Wraith when it came out of the storage device."

"I released it." I stated quietly, thinking of how close it had been.

"On an up note, that depleted the remaining power for the storage device and it shut down completely. It didn't even have the miniscule amount of power left to keep the bio signs in the storage unit alive, and they all died." He saw the looks of horror on our faces, and held up his hands. "No, no! That's a good thing! You see, the storage device had at least two hundred Wraith life signatures in it, and they all died."

"Too bad it took putting John and Jin's lives in danger to do so." Elizabeth stated with a frown.

Nodding a little, I looked down to my hands and stared silently, feeling horrible about what had happened. "How's Jin...?"

Teyla smiled at me when I looked up, no longer the least bit upset. "He has guaranteed us he will never go to the cliffs again, and he thanks you for saving his life." She bowed her head deeply. "As do I. Thanks to what happened, the children are even more aware of the dangers at the cliffs now, and I feel they will not go there again."

"The device..." Elizabeth frowned thoughtfully. "Did it have enough power to send out a signal?"

My heart dropped as the reality hit me that the Wraith could have sent out a signal, informing more Wraith that there was life on this planet. Two hundred Wraith might have died, but if the signal went out...

"No." Rodney shook his head. "There was barely enough power to rematerialize the single Wraith. I doubt he even had time to understand that the others were dead, or even think of sending a message before he was blasted. We're safe, and so are the Athosians."

Teyla looked greatly relieved, as her face had gone pale at the prospect that a signal could have gone out. Elizabeth smiled a little and nodded, dismissing us and ordering me to get plenty of bed rest. Ronon patted my shoulder surprisingly lightly, probably remembering I was hurt, and Teyla walked over, bowing her head next to me as I carefully got up.

Staring at her a moment in confusion, I thought she was going to speak, then it hit me what she was doing. I bowed my head and leaned my forehead against hers, placing my hands on her shoulders as she did the same to me.

"Thank you, John." She stated with a smile before turning and walking off.

Grabbing the crutches Carson lent me, I sighed and made my way slowly out of the room.

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Hope you like it.

Written November 7, 2008

R+R please

Thank you

Tenshi