STARGATE ATLANTIS

PRIMIS : THE HURTING

SGA SGA SGA

'John!' Teyla breathed, unbelievably happy to see him, her eyes immediately darting to that of the very tall man standing holding John's gun her way, and at the same time noticing her other team mates standing still with startled expressions.

She had ran along the tunnels of the cave system with even the marines hurrying to keep up with her. She had known John was within a very short distance away, and she would not wait for them to decide her path.

As she entered the cell area, she stalled quickly, taking in the scene in front of her. John stood stock still; actually shocked looking to see her running to a halt in front of him. He never dared to believe to see her again so soon, so it was almost like he did not believe his own eyes. He raised a hand to stop the marines firing on Santana...he wanted him alive. Teyla allowed him and the others a brief smile before turning her annoyed face towards Santana; the man who had taken her friends away from her.

"Teyla?" She heard John whisper just as Santana took the moment to lift John's gun up in a defensive move, but Ronon's sight had never truly left Santana's and he quickly grabbed him by his gun arm and throat, ready to press tighter until John shook out of his shocked state for a second and held him back. "Not yet!" He managed. Santana glowered but realised he was outmanned when, stepping further into the room, many marines and a nervous looking Dr Keller and Dr Radek Zalenka added to their superior number.

"What is going on? Where are my people?" Santana roared.

Major Lorne, ignoring their now redundant captor, stepped forward to organise the marines and find out what was happening out with the room. John gave him a nod to continue; thankful that he could so easily trust him to take control. He knew, and Lorne knew, that he was in no fit state to organise anything just now but catch up with Teyla and, in turn, Santana. Keller, with a smile Carson's way, pushed past and straight to Lorne as he walked by to check on injuries and her own boss.

Feeling an atmosphere brewing in the room, Carson looked to John and he nodded his release to help Keller with the slight injuries caused by their arrival.

"How did you find us?" John eventually managed to ask; still staring at her. Santana, meanwhile was starting to dance around the guns that were sighted on him, so John waved their arms down.

He whirled back to Teyla as she stepped closer and shook his head at her un-spoken appraisal of his health and need to embrace him. "Not now." He signalled to her with his eyes betraying his same want.

"We have to go, now…" Teyla said, ignoring Santana's penetrating glare coming her way.

Ronon kept by Santana, who growled low in his throat every few minutes. Santana for his part just deeply chuckled his way, eyes glittering with the promised 'meet' in the future between the two, and met his stare with amusement. "I look forward to the day it is just the two of us alone, my friend."

Ronon lifted his chin and continued to growl, even going as far as to bare his teeth.

"Okay, okay. Enough of the he-man rutting!" Rodney interjected. He stuck a pointing finger John's way, briefly catching Carson's eye. "Right, we have to get him home pronto, so if you care to explain, Radek, how the hell you got here another time, let's go!"

"How we got here…Rodney! Is important, and we don't have long, so…"

"Enough!" John barked out.

He put a hand to his forehead, and Teyla and Carson were beside him in seconds, but John put a hand in the air.

"Stop. I'm fine."

Teyla did in the end gently touch the side of his face, resisting the urge to simply throw herself into his arms. She settled for a quick touch of his warm flesh …his overly warm flesh. She tutted, but stepped back and away from him, respecting his authoritative stance within observing eyes of the clan leader. John also halted Carson's advance towards his brow with a snappy shake of his head.

Santana took note of the obvious attraction between John and this new strong female, and wondered if they were a married pair. He smiled slightly towards her, but in the end narrowed his eyes. "Yeah." He said. "…I want to know how you found us too."

John looked at him once and then back to Teyla. "Teyla, meet Santana. He's their Chief here…wherever here is. Santana meet Teyla."

"I'd say I'm pleased to meet you, but as you kidnapped my friends, I have no want to meet your acquaintance." Teyla said quickly. "Besides, it is urgent we should leave now. Santana, you should know that none of your men have been seriously hurt; just stunned."

"I would say then that you HAVE hurt my men. This does not go down well with me." Santana emphasized. "I will remember it!"

"Okay, let's just…stop for a minute." John said, briefly squeezing Teyla's fingers as he walked up to Santana.

"Just stand there and be quiet and listen to what Teyla has to say. We are not wanting to hurt you or your Clan!" John near shouted in frustration.

Santana looked like he wasn't going to stand still for a second, but he finally relented. Outside the cell area, he could see the minimal damage done to the thick walls; pleased to see nothing too bad had been done with the rescue attempt of this latest set of people. He had witnessed the touch of John with this new female rescuer, Teyla, and found he was strangely moved by it. Perhaps he missed the comfort of his own wife; whom had been killed quite some time ago but for now, Santana would play along – not to say he would allow this capture of him and his men to be revenged. Still, he was curious as to how Teyla and others and found their missing friends, so he would watch, listen and learn.

SGA SGA SGA

"John. We cannot delay leaving any longer. There is a hive ship not far behind. I will explain more when we return home." To Santana, Teyla turned. "I understand that the Wraith cannot feed from you, but I would think you do not want them to find out where you live none-the-less. We are blocking our signature, but at best this is not a tried and tested method, so we not only endanger ourselves but you also. We must leave as I said – it is only unfortunate that I could not ask you why you wish to be such tyrants and kidnappers, taking my commanding officer, and …"

"Silence!" Santana dared to cut her off. Both John and Ronon stepped closer towards him. "I tire of hearing what you think of me. You do not know us, but I do want to know how you managed to find where we live…"

Teyla raised a hand. "I will say again. The Wraith are not far behind us, we need to leave."

"They have never set foot upon my land before…"

"They have never had an interest in you before. But, you are holding something here that they want…and can trace, so I suggest you let us leave befo…"

John took that moment to clutch his head and open his mouth in a silent scream and would have fallen if not for Ronon noticing his pain and holding on to his shoulders. "Carson?" Ronon shouted.

"For goodness sake, cover his eyes!" Santana shouted. "She is trying to see where he is."

Teyla clutched John's arm to steady him as Rodney picked up a piece of the dropped cloth. "You really think she can?"

Santana raised both hands out and rolled his eyes in a manner Rodney understood all too well. "Okay, okay. I'll do it." Rodney quickly moved up to John's side and wrapped the long strip of linen type material around his eyes, being careful of his recent wound and barely open bruised eye from earlier.

Keller moved towards John at the same time as Carson, who raised John's chin. "Can you hear me lad?" He asked quietly, conscious of the fact that Lorne had returned and the small cell area was now full of Atlantis staff waiting on their commanding officer to order them on what to do next.

"My head…feels like…oh my goodness…aargh…"

"It is my fault, John. I am so sorry. I have hurt you." Teyla was near tears. Keller squeezed her shoulder in comfort.

"Oh for goodness sake. Let me reach into my pocket?" Santana pushed his way over to Carson.

"The medicine?" Carson asked, hopeful.

Santana nodded and Carson looked quickly to Lorne, who reached into Santana's coat himself, withdrawing the medicine much to Carson's relief.

He quickly took it from Lorne and injected it John's arm as he was writhing on the ground, with Teyla holding his arm steady.

Gradually they could feel him relax and presumed he had fallen asleep. Carson left finger indentation marks in his neck where he had pressed into it, but he sat back on his haunches, pleased it was nothing more than sleep.

Teyla fingered the cloth. "Good idea." She muttered.

"What do you know of what's happening to him?" Santana asked, instantly curious.

Teyla stood up straight. "What I know is none of your concern. You must believe me when I tell you that, other than be mad at you for the kidnapping of my friends, I mean you no harm. Your men, as I have already said, are just stunned. We will leave you now before the Wraith trace us here. Ronon, please pick up John and let's go."

Ronon did pick John up and with the help of Rodney secured him over his shoulder into a fireman's carry, but he stepped into Santana's person space immediately with the very real threat of violence towards him.

"Ronon! There is no time." Lorne berated him.

"Ronon?" Teyla also pushed, and with her tone worrying the big man further, he growled low in his throat and stalked out of their cell with his precious load, flanked by two marines and all the while feeling Santana's glare boring into his back.

Santana cocked his head to the side and tried to size up this new woman. "You are his…wife?"

Teyla would not rise to the bait, however. "Who I am does not concern you. Stay where you are and do not follow. It is for your own good. We will be gone in a few minutes."

"I have your leader's ship."

Teyla smiled. "Correction. You did. Perhaps you should be careful about whom you take from planets to be part of your…Clan…in future. Some of them could be our friends and impart useful knowledge."

Santana now leaned against the heavy open cell door and crossed his arms in defeat, but still curious. "No. It is not as simple as that. The others did not know of your man's condition until I told them. I have only held them for a day, and yet you seem knowledgeable about keeping his eyes closed against the Wraith's probing mind. How. How did you know?"

"It is better you do not know…in case they probe YOUR mind one day."

"Hardly. I will tell you this though…I look forward to the day I meet whomever betrayed me."

Teyla wasted no more time speaking to the man, just turned on her heel and ran after John's retreating form. She did not see Santana follow quickly behind, desperate to see for himself what had befallen his men.

They lay, as he had been told, in a state of unconsciousness brought upon by a wraith's stun, on the warm stone floor. A brief glance at them and he was satisfied they were unhurt. The blast, he noticed, was to the outside wall that housed his craft and the hole it had made showed him his empty cargo hold proving what she had said was true; their small ship had been flown out of it. None of his men were present, so he presumed they had been forced out of the way for their own protection; he would not hold that against them as a wraith's stunning blast could keep the best of men lifeless without knowing it…but here? That was a first.

Freezing cold wind now whipped round his booted feet as he shielded his eyes against the white glare of the outside world. Blue dust fought for dominance as it danced with the frozen land and obscured his view of their leader's back as his large friend carried him into their small craft and no doubt to the doctoring of Carson Beckett.

Damn, he would have liked the healer to have stayed with his Clan; he would have been very useful.

As if knowing he was watching their departing backs, Santana saw the man called Ronon appear at the crafts hatch as it closed after Teyla who had been the last in and nodded his head towards him in some sort of silent acknowledgement that he wold have his revenge for their capture.

Santana smiled and nodded back.

Today he had met, not only some men he had captured, but a worthy band of men he just had to meet again if not to find out how they had found him, but how they could help him in his quest of decades.

He felt he had been quite informative with them really, and when he found out who they were, and why this woman seemed to know about the Colonels condition, he would be very pleased indeed to find out if she could provide him with some information that could help him after all this time.

It was always so bright here on his land. The white, hard rocks like polished alabaster never allowed the setting sun or moon's eclipse to darken the scenery. So, when the huge hive ship came in to view and darkened the immediate area it made Santana blink to say the least.

They had found them.

Santana took a step into the outside world and quickly calculated his chances of reaching his ship. The first boom of an explosion stopped him in his tracks. White, jagged rocks torn from their large casing showered down over the area and the immediate wall wavered back and forward too much in its decision to either stay upright or crumble down. Whatever way, his escape to safety and a chance to fly was thwarted when several more explosions caused by the fire from their ship slammed all about him and his eyes became dazzled when white and blue came alight with flames of orange and sharp chippings stung his unprotected face and hands.

He didn't know why really, but Santana found himself pleading for help to the big man with the strange hair as he knew his end was imminent, and without his help he would never get to finish his quest to the end. He had to succeed in that before he died.

He heard shouting come from within the small craft; knew his ship would be faster, but another look at the hanger, and he still did not have the possibility to reach it in time.

The Ancient ship's hatch has opened further again …to welcome him?

Teyla joined Ronon briefly before she nodded her approval to both Ronon and him. Santana looked neither right nor left, just ran straight ahead, ignoring the destruction going on around him. The last laugh was on Ronon, though, as just as he was reaching where he thought the ramp was, the ship cloaked and the sting in the tail of his imminent rescue was played by Ronon for a laugh. He stopped dead, unsure of what to do until a large hand, wrist encased in leather and sporting a sharp charcoal coloured tattoo appeared as if in thin air and waved him in.

Santana did smile at that and, taking a deep breath, stepped into their ship of rescue and complete reversal of his earlier position with the men.

"…out of here!" he heard being screamed to the cockpit and he felt the craft shudder with the force of the outside ramp lifting up to shut out his world and then speed away from possible destruction or capture by the Wraith.

The captor became solely reliant on whom he had just hours earlier imagined joining his Clan. How things can change. He smirked; it was a long time since his life had been met with such a challenge.

It was all happening. Perhaps he deserved this change of scenery to somehow retrieve some information from them that could help him. Santana looked forward to what lay ahead. He didn't really care about his men – well Stron was the exception perhaps, but he did wonder if he would see his home again.

Santana was instantly awarded a guard by two their soldiers. A quick glance at the ship saw several similarly dressed men watch the healer at work on their prone leader and the female healer check the dressing of those slightly hurt earlier.

"Let's be honest, I do not want you here. Be happy that Teyla wanted to rescue you." Ronon spoke, obviously annoyed at the decision.

"Then I shall be sure to thank her later." Santana moved forward to put his elbows on his knees as he sat on a bunk. Ronon ignored him, and turned his attention once more to his blindfolded friend on the floor. "Doc?" he asked.

"Carson. You can remove the blindfold. It does not matter at the moment and he would be more comfortable when he wakes."

As the man was lying facing him, Santana became instantly alert. "No. No, don't do that. When he wakes up, she could still see…"

"Okay, someone care to explain what the hell is going on?" Rodney asked, clearly exasperated at being left in the dark. "Radek?" He prompted his fellow scientist.

Radek looked at Teyla who nodded briefly the go ahead to speak.

"Not long after you left to find the Major, Crone got in touch with the communicator you left him and told us of this…" Radek looked at Santana, suddenly aware of him and wondering if he should be revealing all this in front of him.

Teyla looked at the two men and then Ronon and lastly John who was moaning softly in his sleep.

"Time is of the essence here for John. He may have useful information for us, so for now he stays and is party to what is going on. I am sure Ronon will make sure he does not cross that line."

Again, Santana found himself smiling. This woman was good. A chief herself if he thought correct.

"I am in your hands….as it turns out."

"Good. Good. We have established he stays, now can you…"

"Rodney. I was getting to it." Radek circled to sit on the opposite bench.

"You were not gone long, as I said when Crone contacted us to tell us he had witnessed your capture from afar and some of his friends easily walking with your captors. He knew that some of his men had talked about joining up with any Carakan's that came along, so he knew who had taken you, and thankfully somebody knew roughly about the location Santana would take them to. And then there was Teyla…" At that Radek stopped talking and looked to Teyla for permission to speak further.

"I could feel the Queen searching for John."

"What?" Ronon, Rodney …and Santana squawked at the same time.

"I don't know how, but ever since John and I…well, we… you know, became a couple, I have been able to sense his mind. The more I thought about where he could have been taken, the clearer the destination became in my mind. I don't know how but I could sense his thoughts the closer I became; but it had a side effect I feel for John." She looked at Carson.

"Headaches." He confirmed and her face fell. "But it's not just you, Teyla, causing them. Santana explained to us what is happening to John. The Queen had something of a long haul bonding session planned for John. Unfortunately when that liquid was released, it overloaded his system as we know, and …"

"She wanted to bond with him? Explain?" She looked towards Santana.

He pointed to the healer. "What you have been told is correct. They will fill you in with what I told them earlier. But your man there … he is in serious danger if he fails to fight the Queens mind probes…as are we all for that matter. But here's the thing…somehow I think there is more to your…thoughts…than you are admitting in front of me. Fill me in or don't, but here's something I'll tell you for free. Your job is to get away from this hive ship as soon as you can. If he falls into their hands, with that ancient gene in him – well it's all she would need to be the superior one here and she would keep him alive in the worst of conditions. You and everyone else would be tortured in front of him to make him comply. She could spin that out for a time…do you understand what I am saying?"

"All too well." Ronon answered.

There was silence for a time as just about everyone's eyes turned to look down at their friend. His face, was slick with sweat and his tight lips belied the fact that he was asleep.

"John?" Carson whispered.

"I heard. I've been over this before. I am okay. Take this blind fold off of me, the headache has gone."

"Somehow I don't totally believe that." Carson said, but untied the knot and slipped the material away.

John slowly blinked weary and bruised eyes until they settled onto Teyla's worried ones. He reached out a hand and Teyla quickly took it. "I am sorry, John."

"Teyla. It is okay. You found us didn't you? Now I want no more talk until we get back to Atlantis."

"What is Atlantis? Your home word?" Santana asked, eager to learn more of where they came from.

John raised himself up on his elbows with Ronon standing to help pull him the rest of the way up. John balanced his hands on his knees and scoffed. "Yeah. It is. Interesting you are here with us. Mention this place to anyone when we let you go and I'll not stop Ronon from doing what he wanted to do just hours ago!"

"But you are going to let me go?"

"Once we have gleaned any information we need from you. Trust me you don't want to stay with us. Kinda dangerous to be around us."

"Yeah?" That's my middle name!"

"Then we already know you!"

"I hate to break up the conversation back there, but we have a hive following us….and we are cloaked!"

SGA SGA SGA

To be continued…..