Hello, Stargate Lovers!

Happy New Year! I hope 2024 bring you everything good into your lives!

Now, I thought of putting season 5 into a new story folder, but decided against it and keep it here. What do you think? Do I continue in the same "book" or do I create a new one? Leave it in the comments section.

And even though this is not my best chapter, I really enjoyed working on it and unveil a bit more of what Alexandra is actually capable of and to show what it is to come to these characters.

Hope you like it!

Chapter 33: Chapter 5x01

"There. Better?" Alexandra looked over at Evan Lorne, patching his leg as best as she could as she heard him and Rodney bicker over what had happening.

"Yeah. Thank you, doc." Evan said, giving her a small smile, spite the pain he felt.

The scientist smiled, looking over at Rodney that was meddling with the Wraith terminal that got them under a pile of rubble after detonating the bombs placed by Michael around the building he was supposed to bring Teyla to give birth.

"You think Sheppard and Ronon are okay?" She ended up asking after another quick attempt of trying to find any life signs.

Tired, confused and apprehensive, Rodney turned to her.

"I honestly don't know. We were lucky you were here with us…"

Nodding, Alexandra looked around, remembering the quick protection her personal shield had provided for the three of them, even though Lorne had been the first line of defense as he pushed her and Rodney out of the way as the building started to fall on them. Hence his broken leg. And, right now, she was trying to keep the dread at bay as she wasn't able to use her powers to sense any other life signs as her energy levels had depleted after protecting the three of them.

"Look, there's no bad guys around, okay? No bad guys, just a lot of debris, so if you could please just sit tight and try not to make the ceiling collapse, that would be great." Evan lorne asked, taking deep breaths as he went on with his rant towards Rodney, since the scientist just couldn't keep still.

"Boys... please, stop." At some point, and exhausted at the bickering, Alexandra looked between the two men, who ended up calling a truce of some kind at her request.

"Okay, no bad guys. Just sit tight." Rodney whispered to himself as he looked up, through the fissures of the broken ceiling.

In the meantime, Ronon tried to patch John as best as he could, while Samantha Carter and a team of combat engineers got ready after Lt. Edison report on the explosion the team got trapped in.

Since, she couldn't do much, Alexandra had sat down and closed her eyes, while listening to Rodney work on the Wraith motherboards and Lorne's questions.

After a few minutes, she tried, once again, to relax and feel for any life signs, as her anxiety was starting to kill her.

"Oh, no."

"What?" Evan looked at Rodney.

"Look, I don't want to concern you any more than you actually already are, but if I'm reading this correctly, then Michael is..." The scientist continued.

"Shut up." Suddenly, the major ordered, this time looking towards the ceiling.

"No, you shut up. This is important. If Michael is..."

"Shh! Quit making noise!"

"Rodney..." Alexandra shushed him as she opened her and looked up as well, sensing more than just the footsteps Evan was listening to.

"It's footsteps." Now, Rodney understood.

"Okay, revise that. Start making noise." Evan started to yell.

Almost immediately, Samantha's team, alongside Jennifer's medical one, found them, analysing how they could get the survivors out of the hole.

"We'll work as fast as its safe, Rodney!"

"No, no, no, you don't understand. I just found out that when the self-destruct is initiated, it's automatically programmed to send a subspace burst. Michael's probably already on his way."

"We'll get you out as soon as we can." The Atlantis leader promised, urging her team to start.

As the combat engineers worked as fast as they could on that site, John and Ronon were having an almost heart-to-heart conversation, about who needed to go ahead and dig a hole to make way to the surface. Not a hero talk at all.

Alexandra came out of the hole after Evan, helping him towards the gurney the medical team had prepared.

"Sam!" The archaelogist stepped closer to her friend.

"Hey! I was just saying to Rodney that the other two life signs are a lot deeper..."

Suddenly, a dart appeared from the sky.

"Whoever it is that survived, we can't leave them, Sam!"

"You don't know..." Samantha saw Alexandra's negative nod almost immediately. "Look, with Michael here, we have to go!" She shouted as shots were fired. "The Daedalus it's on its way. We need to go. Alex, c'mon!" The leader of Atlantis said as she saw her friend's look to stay behind. "We'll be back."

With a sigh, Alexandra ran towards the jumpers alongside Rodney, Sam, Jennifer and Vega. There wasn't much she could do without falling into a gurney herself.

Immediately, she heard his voice as he talked with Jennifer Keller about not missing a chance to save a teammate. She groaned at that. Why couldn't the man just stand still? Not even twenty fours hours had gone by and she almost lost him twice? What were the Ancients thinking? If he was the one to help her with her powers, they were doing a shitty job at protecting him.

"Alex!" A wincing John Sheppard stopped at the door, almost bumping into her. "You're okay?" His hazel eyes lingered for a moment on her face, noticing only a few scrapes and smudges of dirt here and there. The pilot felt relieved and, in a split of a second, there was this thought of pulling her to an empty room to make sure there was only dirt and scrapes to account for. However, there was the matter at hand... and the bruised ribs that would get in the way of enacting said thought.

"Yeah, I'm fine… John, what are you doing?" Her eyes made a quick scan of his bruises as he went around her. As she followed him, she noticed his limp. "You should be in a bed."

Once more, there was that thought but he bit his tongue before something innapropriate would come out.

"I need to find Teyla." He tried to wince quietly as he kept walking.

"I know, but…"

"I'm fine. This is nothing."

"Ronon, say something..." She spotted the satedan following them.

"He's not going to listen to me, doc." He merely shrugged, spite the worried look he gave her.

"John." With a sigh, Alexandra stopped in front of the pilot, her hand coming in contact to his chest. "It's not nothing." Brown and hazel met. "You're not alright."

"Alex…" The pilot winced again, giving a deep breath before talking. "I have to do this. It's Teyla. It's her baby. And Michael is right there." John pointed towards the hull of the ship, signaling for the cruise ship that was just around the corner.

"I know. But you're hurt. You're not Superman or Batman, John, for as much as you would like to be. I'll go with Ronon and bring her back." Alexandra almost added a plead at the end.

"No! It's my job! I have to be the one. I can't stay in bed and wait for Teyla to die. Not after..." Frustrated, John didn't understand why she was stopping him. "And I need you to stay here, in case something goes wrong. In case I don't..." He stopped the words from coming out.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Now, she was the one frustrated. She went toe to toe with him. "You dying as you try to save Teyla? She would never forgive you. Or me for letting you go. You can't... You won't... Sam won't let you."

His hand grabbed her arm gently, stopping her rant.

"Alex, please... Trust me."

Even if the scientist could clearly see he was in pain, Alexandra also saw something more in his expression, the reason why he was being stubborn. Whatever he had come to know in the future, it must have been important. And that was why she needed him to protect him from herself. And whatever the Ancients were about to throw her way, if her powers rising were any indication.

With a sigh, she stepped out of his way, hiding her hands in her pockets as they hitched to grab him and make him see some reason in that sense of heroism his ego needed in that moment.

"I'll take care of him, doc." Ronon whispered as he went by her, following John as he started walking.

With a quick smile to the satedan, Alexandra nodded, her heart flinching at her own decision of letting him go.

However, a thought struck John and the pilot turned to say something, but she was already gone.

"Shut up." He grumbled as Ronon gave him a look and a smirk appeared on his friend's lips.

Hours later

Teyla looked up from her baby the moment Alexandra stepped into the infirmary. There was a backpack on her shoulder that she put down as she approached the athosian's bed.

"I hope I'm not intruding."

"No. Not at all. I have just finished feeding him." The new momma smiled, rocking the little one gently. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Earth. Me and Sam got a call. The last of Ba'al's clones got caught. He was a Goa'uld, a System Lord we had to fight back in our galaxy. And the Tok'Ra desire SG-1's presence for his trial and they extended the invitation to me aswell. Just came to say my goodbyes."

"Oh. Well, I hope you're not gone too long. You will be missed, Alexandra." Teyla gave her a sad smile in return.

"I hope not." The scientist smiled, her eyes going for the baby. "Oh, Teyla, he's beautiful. What's his name?"

"Torren. Torren John." The woman's dark eyes smiled.

"John must be feeling conceited." Alexandra glanced at the other occupied bed. "You know he's gonna call him TJ, right?"

"I know." Teyla chuckled. "Do you want to hold him?"

"Oh, I couldn't…"

"Please. I need to rest for a little while." Holding Torren towards the other woman, Alexandra took him carefully and the baby looked up at the new person holding him without fussing. "He likes you." The athosian said, seeing her friend smile down at the baby.

"Sure about that?"

"Well, he's not crying." Teyla teased her friend and smiled, seeing Alexandra sit in a nearby chair, her eyes staying on the baby.

Even though she had a place to be, she knew she had enough time to have a quiet moment with this new life as his mother fell asleep. And after the events of the last twenty four hours, or the last two weeks, Alexandra felt a weight lift up from her body as she thought that all of her friends were safe for the time being.

"Not tired?" John's voice finally made her look up.

"No." She gave him a quick smile. "Late briefing with the I.O.A."

"Honestly, those guys don't sleep." His hazel eyes fell on the baby. "TJ giving you any trouble?" He followed her movements as she placed the baby in a small bassinet next to Teyla's bed. He noticed her smile. "What?"

"I told Teyla you would call him that." She approached John. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better. How come you and Rodney didn't suffer any injury?"

"Lorne took us out of the way. And my shield helped."

"That man deserves a medal." John's eyes were fixed on hers, closely. "Listen, Alex… The way I spoke to you…"

"It's fine, John." She disregarded him with a quick smile. Now that everything was over and he was alright, she needed to get her head straight.

"You were looking out for me. So, yes, I do need to apologize." He had a serious look on his face.

"Accepted then." The scientist placed her hands in her pockets, not sure of what to say or even feel. "I'm just glad the three of you are okay." She gave a quick look towards the other bed.

"Listen, maybe we should talk about what happened in the future." He continued.

Something in his tone pricked her curiosity.

"Sure." Alexandra was about to sit next to his bed when her radio went off. "Hum, can we talk after I get back? Me and Sam are going back to Earth. The last of Ba'al's clones was caught. The Tok'Ra requested our presence."

"Well, good for them. There's a chapter that needed closing." John joked, seeing her step away from him.

"You got that right." Alexandra picked up her bag. "Try to not get in too much trouble while I'm gone."

"Yes, ma'am." He gave her a salute with a little smirk. Then added. "Try not to miss me too much, O'Neill."

She gave him a salute back, before disappearing from his sight.

Seeing her leave the infirmary, John was actually glad by the interruption. He needed a little more time to gather his own thoughts about what he found out in the future. Was it even real now, since he changed the outcome of the original timeline? Would she actually feel anything for him as Hologram Rodney had hinted?

He was anxious to know. And while she was gone, he would try to understand if his feelings were his own or by whatever Kal left inside of him, like she had mentioned.

Ps: Thoughts?