A/N: Here's the final chapter of my second episode. I'm already hard at work on episode three.

Thank you all for taking the time to read.

Chapter Seven:

Sheppard and Ronon waited patiently in the darkness of the jumper bay, anxious for their quarry to arrive. It had been a calculated gamble by Sheppard but he was sure that Andrews would head here and not to the gate room as first appeared.

As the minutes ticked by however, the gamble seemed to have backfired with no sign of Andrews. Ronon cast a furious glare at Sheppard, as if his one chance for just retribution had passed him by. Then, as if fate itself had intervened, the doors opened and in crept a single figure, weapon raised and on alert for any sign of activity.

As the doors closed behind the figure, plunging the room back into near total darkness, Sheppard sensed his chance and stepped out from cover, his own weapon pointed directly at the figure. Calling out over the comm for the lights to be raised, the sudden illumination disoriented Andrews long enough for Ronon to sneak up behind him and deliver a punishing blow to the back of his head, knocking the traitorous officer to the floor. Sheppard moved cautiously towards the prone figure on the floor, careful to remove his weapons before checking his health.

"Just unconscious. Thanks for restraining yourself Chewie" said Sheppard.

Ronon simply nodded, though the look in his eyes suggested he already regretted not killing him.

"Lets get him to the brig."

- - SGA - -

Teyla paced impatiently around the infirmary, still awaiting news of Kanaan's condition. It had been over five hours since he had been taken back into surgery and no-one had emerged from the operating room since. Teyla knew that Doctor Keller was an experienced and very capable surgeon and that she would do everything to save him. But deep within herself, Teyla sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.

As she contemplated barging into the operating room to find out for herself, Doctor Keller and her surgical team emerged from the operating room, their scrubs stained red with blood. Teyla stared intently at the young doctor as she strode towards her, removing her surgical mask as she did so. Her body language was so neutral that Teyla could not discern whether she brought good or bad news, which only added to the uneasiness she was feeling.

"How did it go?" asked Teyla calmly.

Keller paused for a moment, as if inwardly preparing herself.

"We managed to find and stop the bleeding." said Keller

"That is good news!" said a relieved Teyla, but Keller's expression did not lighten.

"Unfortunately, the stress became too much for his already battered body. He went into cardiac arrest. We lost him." said Keller forlornly.

Teyla was stunned, unable to speak or even move. Her outward expression remained passive yet inside she was a torrent of emotions, grief and pain the dominant feelings. Deep down she had known even before Doctor Keller had told her and yet she could not process it fully. And to make it worse, she had no been able to put things right between them before he had gone.

"No...it cannot be" she offered meekly.

"I'm so sorry Teyla, we did everything we could" said Keller, her own voice quivering with emotion.

"Yes...Yes...I know you did Doctor Keller...thank you" said Teyla genuinely as she attempted to regain her composure.

Keller could barely look at Teyla, knowing how much she must be hurting. Outwardly she looked as calm and assured as ever but Keller knew that inside she was an emotional wreck, as anyone would be in that situation. She placed a reassuring hand on Teyla's shoulder, silently telling the Athosian that she was there for her. Teyla offered a weak smile before collapsing back into her chair as Keller rushed to get out of the scrubs still stained with his blood.

- - SGA - -

Andrews began to stir slowly, the pain still throbbing at the back of his head. His vision was somewhat blurred but good enough to make out his immediate surroundings. There was someone standing a few feet in front of him, their eyes transfixed upon him. Andrews couldn't make out the face but he didn't need to, there was only one person this could be.

"Colonel Sheppard. Always the chivalrous warrior" he called out.

"Major Andrews, always the traitorous son of a bitch" came the reply.

"Why am I still alive?" enquired Andrews.

"Thats a good question. I'm not really sure about that myself." said Sheppard passively.

"Come on Colonel, we both know what you want" he said.

"Why did you do it?" asked Sheppard

"Wrong question Colonel. You shouldn't ask why, you should ask who." replied Andrews knowingly.

Sheppard was not going to play his little games. Grabbing him by his collar, Sheppard dragged Andrews to his feet, wincing as he did so due to the injuries sustained in the explosion. Without hesitation, he slammed the traitor against the wall of the cell, anger at the smugness of his prisoner erupting from within him.

"Look you son of a bitch, you've killed two people. Two of MY people. I'm not going to play along with your mind games. You're going to tell me what I want to know or I'll shoot you here and now."

Andrews smirk nefariously as he nodded in agreement to Sheppard's terms. He hadn't expected the opportunity to messed with the Colonel's head and he would be damned if he passed on the chance now.

"You were supposed to be the one who discovered the bomb, not Kanaan. It was all planned for you to take the fall for the entire plot, but you survived thanks to that Athosian meddler" said Andrews with disdain.

"Thats why you told me about the energy readings, you knew I would go and check them"

"You're a creature that is easy to predict Colonel, it was easy to manipulate you to do what I required"

Sheppard sensed he was being played and decided to go along with it for now, hoping it would lead to Andrews slipping up and revealing something about who was behind the sabotage attempt. He had thought constantly about who would benefit from such an act and frustratingly, he could not think of anyone beyond the wraith. And given that Andrews had practically no contact with the wraith, that seemed unlikely.

"But why? What would you gain from disabling Atlantis?"

"I would gain the favour of those who placed their trust in me for this mission"

"And who would that be?"

"Ah now Colonel, I would lose that favour were I to reveal who they are. Sufficed to say, I serve Earth's future."

Sheppard was just about to respond when he heard a slight crack from somewhere inside the room. Looking around for the source of the noise, he failed to find it and so spun back around to face Andrews, only to find the traitorous agent collapsed on the floor, his eyes that were so full of malice and venom now eerily vacant. A check of his pulse confirmed Sheppard's fears; the coward had committed suicide rather than face the consequences of his actions.

"Damn it" said Sheppard, knowing he was now no closer to find those who were ultimately responsible for the attack on Atlantis.

- - SGA - -

Several hours had passed since Andrews' suicide and Sheppard was still angry with himself that he didn't seen it coming. Andrews had been a highly trained and highly professional saboteur and yet Sheppard had not even considered the fact he would have a suicide pill embedded in a tooth, to be used in the event of capture. Sheppard sought to work off his frustrations with a run and decided to kill two birds with one stone. He ended his run outside her quarters, knowing she would need a friend right now. He pressed the button and waited for the door to open, which they did after a brief delay.

"Hey" he said warmly.

"Hello Colonel. Did you need something?" Teyla asked without looking at him.

"No, I was just making sure...Torren was okay" said Sheppard, hoping she would pick up on his true meaning.

"Torren is...hurting at the loss he has suffered, but I believe he will be fine. In time." she offered

"Look Teyla, I never got to say thanks to him. He saved my life" said Sheppard.

Teyla looked curiously at him, not having the faintest idea of what he was talking about.

"Just before the explosion. He told me to run, to save myself. Without his warning, I'd have been killed" Sheppard revealed.

"That is why you did not believe he was responsible." said Teyla, finally making sense of why Sheppard had cleared Kanaan's name.

"Yeah that...and you."

"Me?" asked Teyla

"Yeah... I knew you could never...love someone capable of those things" said Sheppard, the awkwardness prevalent in his voice.

Teyla did not know what to say. That Sheppard has so much faith in her judgement was so heartening that she could not fully express what it meant to her. Had it come at any other time, she would have been far more transparent about how much it meant to her. But so close after Kanaan's death, she could not express such warm feelings whilst being in the very coldest of emotional places. So she said nothing, offering only a faint smile. Before Sheppard had a chance to say something else, the city-wide comm system crackled into life.

"Attention all inhabitants of Atlantis" said Woolsey in a monotone voice.

"We have arrived safely back in the Pegasus Galaxy and are currently less than two hours away from our new home here. Though everyone has helped us achieve this monumental feat, this would never have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of Doctors McKay and Zelenka, who in our darkest hour came to the rescue and saved us from an unimaginable fate. And though our journey is almost over, our work has only just begun. Thank you all."

Sheppard had to give it Woolsey, that was a pretty good speech. Though it did fail to mention the efforts of him and his security teams in apprehending the perpetrator of the attack. But he didn't really care about that. Especially not at this time.

He looked over at Teyla to find her now staring out of her window into the vast ocean of space.

"I cannot believe we are back here so soon" she said honestly.

"I dunno... I always imagined coming back here, back..."

"Home?" said Teyla, pre-emptively finishing his sentence.

"Yeah. Home." said Sheppard with a wry smile.