John sat next to Rodney, Teyla, Carson, Laura, and Elizabeth. Lauryn slept soundly in Elizabeth's loving arms, while JJ was on the other side barely keeping his eyes open. They had been watching the third Star Wars movie, per request of most of the men. After some serious explaining and nearly a week of marathon watching, Teyla was completely caught up and they were finishing the final movie.

John looked down at his young son and smiled as he boy tried to remain awake, his head propped against his father's chest. "Okay kiddo, I think it's bed time," John stood up, allowing his son to prop himself up against the back of the couch. Smiling softly John reached down and lifted his son into his arms. Instantly the boy's legs wrapped around his waist, arms around his neck and his head leaning against John's shoulder.

If there was one thing in his world, that John couldn't describe better, this was the moment. There was nothing more important to him in the entire world than his little boy, and just holding his son made him feel so important. John sighed, wishing he hadn't missed so many of his son's early years, but he was pleased that he would get to spend the next twelve getting to know the boy.

He turned to face his friends and smiled, "night guys," John grinned as he carried his son out of the entertainment room. His fellow teammates nodded or whispered a goodbye as he headed into his own bed room further down the hallway. He moved into his son's bedroom off to the left, and easily settled his son down onto the bed, pressing a kiss to his son's forehead, "love you little guy," he whispered as he then pulled the blankets up around his shoulders.

"Daddy," whispered his son before John could leave the room. John turned and smiled at his son, moving back over, he sat down next to his son.

"What's up buddy?"

"Will you tell me a story?"

"JJ, you just watched a fantasy movie, I think that's plenty of a story for you. Sleep," John grinned.

"But you're going off world tomorrow…"

"I know that, but don't worry I'll be back."

"But you always tell me a story before you go off world," whined the child.

"But…but…but," Joked John as he leaned over again and pressed another kiss to his head. "Look buddy not tonight okay, I'm tired."

"Okay," the boy whispered.

"I'll tell you what, I will read to you two stories tomorrow night, okay?"

"Okay," the boy grinned nodded.

"Night little man."

Morning dawned on Atlantis, far too early for John Sheppard as he slowly strolled out of his shower, with only a pair of pants on, grabbing the cup of coffee he had made shortly before getting into the shower. He took his first sip, smiling at the aroma as well as the feeling of the warm liquid slipping down his throat. Today would be a good day. He decided as he looked around for his t-shirt that he normally wore.

The door to the bedroom his son slept in slowly opened and the child came out, clad in his dad's favorite Bon Jovi t-shirt, and a pair of flannel bottoms, his hair sticking up in every direction as he slowly rubbed at his eyes wearily.

"Well good morning," grinned John as he put his cup of coffee down and reached under his bed, finally finding his black shirt.

"So…are you guys going on a mission today?" JJ asked as he sat on his father's bed.

"Uh, yep, we're leaving in a couple hours, better get dressed, Major Lorne doesn't like to wait," grinned John as he tussled the child's hair. They had agreed on a way to educate the children of Atlantis when the time came, the children would learn something from all the Senior members or second in command. JJ was the guinea pig, but he didn't seem to mind, he certainly seemed to enjoy his time spent with his father's friends.

"Kay," whispered JJ as he hurried off to get dressed.

John sighed, he was fairly sure JJ was annoyed that John didn't read the story last night, but frankly John had been ready to collapse without reading stories, he wasn't ready to read until JJ was fast asleep three hours later. JJ came out of the bedroom a few moments later completely dressed and looking ready to go.

"Okay," John smiled as he took his son's hand and they headed out of their room.

After dropping his son off into Major' Lorne's protective company, the Colonel headed down to the gate room, Ronan was talking with one of the guys standing by the gate, Teyla was already suited up discussing something between Elizabeth and one of the various technicians. Meanwhile Rodney was checking something on the MALP.

"Ready?" John asked as he patted his brother on the shoulder.

Rodney turned his blue eyes to his brother and gave the man a smile, "yep, we should be good to go, just gotta dial it up," Rodney replied.

"Good, lets do this then," smiling he cast a glance to Elizabeth and Teyla, smiling softly he nodded, "Dial it up," he called.

"Be safe," Elizabeth gave her normal goodbye to her friends as she watched them step through the gate.

Everything seemed to be going well, they met with the people of the village, made a couple peaceful trades and were soon on their way back to the gate. John shouldn't shake the feeling that was almost too simple.

Before he even had time to voice his thoughts he heard the familiar buzzing above their heads. "Wraith!" he called rapidly as he began to run towards the gate, Ronan on his tail.

"Rodney!" Teyla cried out as she shoved the scientist out of the way.

John turned just in time to see Teyla scooped up by a Wraith dart, he felt his stomach roll, at the sight of the beam and her body disappear. John opened his mouth to yell for Rodney who was still on the ground covering his head, but no sound would come.

In that moment John was never more thankful to have Ronan on his team, as the runner dashed over to Rodney and grabbed his arm, "come on," was all the runner said to Rodney before he yanked him towards the gate, "Dial!" Ronan ordered.

John quickly dialed the gate address to Atlantis, then punched in his numbers for the GDO, seconds later they dove through gate, all three men still in shock at what had just happened.

The three men landed on the floor of Atlantis' gate room in a large heap, "Are you all right? What happened? Where's Teyla," Elizabeth asked as she hurried down the stairs to her best team. Three sets of different eyes all looked up at her, each filled with their own pain and shock.

"Wraith…dart," whispered Rodney as he slowly dug himself out from under Ronan.

"We were on our way back from the village, when we heard a dart nearby, we started running back towards the gate when suddenly…" Ronan just stopped as he looked up at Elizabeth.

"She pushed me out of the way," whispered Rodney.

"All right, go get your post-mission check up, we'll brief in one hour," Elizabeth tried to remain calm, and not worry about her closest friend.

"Wait a minute…"John began to argue.

"Listen to me John, we can't do anything for her right now, you said yourself it happened so fast, there's no way to trace the dart at the moment, we'll have to wait and try to get our heads on straight before we decided to go off half-cocked and get ourselves killed."

"Yes ma'am," John murmured.

John sighed as he ran his hair through his rakish hair, walking into the nearly empty mess hall, that's when he spotted the other figure sitting over at a table by himself, a carton of milk sitting in front of him, along with a couple of cookies. John smiled sadly as he neared his young son, "must be pretty serious if you aren't eating your cookies," John muttered, he honestly didn't feel much like joking at the present time.

"I heard 'bout Teyla," whispered JJ. John sighed and reached out to lift his son from the seat, taking a in the vacated chair, he pulled JJ on to his lap, trying to pull his thoughts together before speaking.

"Listen buddy, try not to worry too much, okay. Teyla's a tough cookie, we'll find her," John whispered, unsure who he was really trying to convince.

"Are you scared?"

John smiled as he leaned his head against JJ's head, "yeah buddy, yeah I am."

"Dad, do you love Teyla?" JJ asked as he leaned against John's chest.

"I dunno buddy, she's very special to me, she's strong, beautiful, and smart. She's the only other woman I know who can kick my ass… What do you think of Teyla?"

"She sings to me, and holds me when I'm scared…she doesn't treat me like a stupid little kid. I know my real mom isn't gone…but Teyla makes me believe it might be okay to have two moms."

"Teyla makes me feel something I haven't felt since I first met your mom."

"Would you ever marry Teyla?"

"Maybe, one day down the road buddy," John whispered, although at this very moment he was feeling that road coming to an end far quicker, just so he could be with her.

"If you do marry her, can I call her mom?"

"You'll have to ask her, but I'm sure she'd like that," John prayed they weren't talking about someone who was already dead and gone. The duo lapsed into a comfortable silence John watching as JJ studied his father's hands.

"If you do marry her…I want a brother."

John grinned and hugged his sweet boy, "oh you do; do you? Well I'll see what I can do."

"I love you dad," JJ whispered as he titled his head to look up at his father.

"I love you too kiddo," John replied dropping a kiss to his son's forehead.

John sat quietly in Elizabeth's office, watching as Rodney tried to retell what had happened on the planet, Ronan had decided to show up late, and he now sat close to John, his arms crossed protectively across his chest.

"We should go back out there," whispered John.

"John I want to send you back out there, don't get me wrong, however it's not going to be safe, and we don't even know where she's been taken too, right now it would be far too dangerous and take far too much time to try and search every planet for her. We have to wait and hope we get some kind of sign."

"Some kind of sign…" began Ronan.

"Listen to me gentlemen, please. I understand your urgency, but it's just as important to me, as it would be to her, to keep you guys safe as well. I'm not going to send you to some random planet hunting the Wraith. No matter what you have done before."

"Off world activation!" came the voice of the Lieutenant from the control room.

"Who on earth could that be?" Elizabeth asked as she stood and headed out into the control room, followed closely by John, Ronan and Rodney.

"I don't know ma'am, we don't have anyone off world at the moment."

"Do you have a GDO?" Rodney asked as he moved over to the control system.

"It's Teyla's IDC," whispered the man.

"Lower the shield!" barked John his eyes still on the gate.

Teyla Emmagan stepped through the wormhole, looking slightly dirty and dusty, but none worse for the wear, she didn't look any older either. "Teyla…" John began.

They all watched in horror as she suddenly raised her side arm and took aim, "John look out!" cried Rodney as he dove and took his brother to the ground, a shot hitting one of the walls right behind John.

Elizabeth slowly stood from where she had crouched by one of the controls and watched as various members of the military security team quickly grabbed Teyla. "Be gentle!" she yelled, "take her to the brig…we'll question her there, and have Doctor Beckett meet us there," Elizabeth ordered.

"What the hell was that all about?" Rodney asked as he slowly helped John to his feet.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out!" hissed John as he quickly made his way down the stairs.

"Teyla, do you know who I am?" Elizabeth asked as she entered the brig.

Two doe brown eyes, filled with hatred stared back at her, Elizabeth could almost feel a shiver go down her spine from the chill in those eyes.

"You are Elizabeth Weir!" she hissed.

"Teyla, what happened to you?" questioned John as he took another step towards the jail cell.

"I came to my senses! You have killed those close to me!"

"Teyla, you used to serve with us, you're my friend…remember?"

"I fight for the Wraith! I would never betray them!" she yelled.

"No…you don't," stated John, "you're our ally, our friend, you and your people helped us."

"You tried to kill us!"

"I'm sorry you feel this way," Elizabeth began placing a hand on John's arm, "but we have not harmed you in anyway, and we don't want to."

"If you…would like to talk…we're here," whispered John as he turned and left the room.

Elizabeth paused a moment longer, watching her best fighter, then joined John and Carson outside the large room, "that was…disturbing," whispered Carson.

"What did they do to her?" John directed his question toward Carson.

"Your guess is as good as mine. If she sleeps, I'll try to get some of her blood…we'll see if there are any toxins in her blood stream."

"Good, hopefully whatever this is…we'll be able to get past it."

"So now what?" whispered Ronan.

"We wait, Rodney was able to get some blood samples, he thinks she may have been given some sort of drug to believe she's against us…he also thinks it will wear off soon enough."

"I don't like to wait," murmured Ronan in reply.

"I don't either Ronan, but currently it's or only option, we have to be patient, she'll stay in the cell until she's back to normal."

"What about the Wraith, they obviously know we're here," questioned John.

"Yes well, they've known that for awhile now. Try not to worry," Elizabeth added.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Rodney jumped in.

"No," spoke Carson, "I'm afraid not, we're stuck waiting for whatever this drug is to wash out of her system."

"All right…we'll I guess we should probably…get some rest," whispered Elizabeth gently.

"Yeah…"muttered John as he got up and walked out of the room.

Elizabeth sighed as she slowly rubbed her temples, the night shift had come, Atlantis was quiet, and nearly everyone had headed to bed. So here she sat, looking down at John, and Carson's report. Carson was exceptionally hopeful that Teyla would make a full recovery if whatever she had in her system left her body. However, until then they would all have to suffer the words she threw at each of them.

She could feel the tears beginning to form, this wasn't her Teyla, her closest friend, the only other woman on Atlantis that Elizabeth trusted like she trusted Rodney and Carson.

"Elizabeth, sorry to bother you but I…" he stopped when he noticed she hadn't looked at him yet. "Lizzy?" he whispered as he moved over to her side. "Eliza, sweetheart," he reached out and gently touched her shaking shoulder, and suddenly realized she was crying softly. "Honey?"

"I'm sorry," she whimpered as she shook her head, "I was just thinking about Teyla," Elizabeth whispered as she looked up at him.

"Hey, Teyla's going to be fine, you said it yourself, the woman is one hell of a fighter. She's going to pull through this, and we'll have our old…kick ass Teyla."

"I know," Elizabeth mumbled as she wiped at her face to clear the tears away.

"Come here," he whispered in reply as he gently grabbed her arm and lifted her from her seat. Pulling her close, he rubbed her back softly, trying to calm her.

Elizabeth paused for a moment, as she hid her face in his shoulder, trying not to just have a complete breakdown. "I'm sorry."

"Shh, hey, there's nothing wrong with you for missing your friend. I miss her too, I'm here." Leaning back he pressed a kiss to her forehead and smiled gently.

"Thank you Rodney, I'm sorry…" she sighed again.

"Don't worry about it Eliza, why don't' we go to the mess and have some coffee or something."

"Thank you, I could use some company," she said nodding.

Rodney nodded, and together the two friend discreetly crept off to the mess hall, hand in hand. Rodney's fingers laced through her's, not caring what anyone said about him, or them.

John lay in bed, sighing he rolled over onto his back, he couldn't fall asleep, his mind just kept going back to Teyla. He couldn't think, couldn't sleep, he just missed his Teyla. "Dad…" came the soft voice from the other side of the room.

"Yeah buddy," whispered John.

"I can't sleep," whimpered the child.

"Come here buddy," John opened his arms and allowed JJ to climb up onto his bed and curl against his side.

"Dad…I want Teyla back," he whimpered.

"Me too buddy, me too," John felt tears stinging his eyes as his son, cuddled to his father, trying to fall asleep, "me too," he whimpered softly as he closed his eyes against the wave of tears threatening to over flow.

John was startled awake by the loud siren wailing through the city, and the sudden cry from his intercom by his bed, "JOHN! TEYLA'S OUT!" cried Rodney.

John jumped out of bed, his son right behind him, suddenly John turned, "no, stay here JJ," he stated gently. He gently brushed the hair from the child's eyes.

"But…mom," he whimpered.

"I'll take care of Teyla, I promise," pressing a kiss to his son's head he ran out of the room, never looking back to notice that his son had followed him.

"She's headed to the gate room!" cried Rodney as he came around a corner, nearly barreling into his brother.

"Let's go, did you wake Elizabeth?"

"Yeah!" came Ronan's reply as he joined the duo.

The gate room was already a flurry of activity, Teyla was standing in the control room, getting ready to dial the gate, "Teyla no!" Ronan cried.

"The Wraith will come again!" she hissed as she ran down the stairs. Suddenly John shot out from one of the sides, his gun drawn on her, staring her down.

"Teyla, it's John," he spoke firmly.

"Get out of my way Sheppard."

"Dad!" cried JJ as he ran into the gate room; seeing him Rodney stretched his arm out, able to grab the boy as quickly as he could and hold him close.

"No! Get off me!" yelled JJ as he detached himself from his Uncle.

"Don't make me do this Teyla," John whispered as he took the safety off his gun.

"NO!" cried JJ as he stood between his father's gun and Teyla.

"JJ move!" John yelled angrily, afraid to hurt his son, but more afraid of the woman standing on the other side of his little boy.

"No!" JJ turned to face Teyla, tears streaming down the eight year old's face, he took a deep breath, "I know the real Teyla is still in there! You hate the Wraith Teyla, you're not with them. Don't you 'member?" he whimpered slightly, "Teyla, I love you…" he paused and looked back at his father, "my dad loves you, you're the world to me and dad. You give him reason to wake up every mornin', and he thinks 'bout you every night. I know you feel the same about him, you've told me! Please Teyla, this isn't you…you're a strong leader of your people…you love these people, you're full of confidence, you sing to me!" he sobbed suddenly, "you love me!"

John watched with tears in his own eyes, as everyone else simply observed with no control. They watched the woman they all held with such a high regard, Teyla was frozen in her spot, all eyes were on JJ.

"You're my Atlantis mommy…you even let me call you that at times….You taught me how to sing…and how to be creative without getting in trouble, you taught me respect for myself and those around me. Please Teyla come back…we love you."

For a moment John was sure he saw a flicker of recognition from Teyla, then suddenly her face grew angry and she stepped towards the boy. A loud crack resounded through the halls of Atlantis. "NO!" screamed JJ as he ran towards the unconscious Athosian.

Carson rapidly descended the stairs, "we need to get her into the infirmary now!" he called.

JJ slowly turned towards his dad, tears were now streaming down John's face as his haunted eyes stared down at the woman on the floor, the smoking gun in his hand wavering slightly, then slipping to the floor.

"Daddy," whimpered JJ.

John instantly looked up at his son, seconds later he caught the little boy in his arms and held him for all he was worth, "I'm sorry buddy, god I'm so sorry," John whispered.

"How's she doing?" Elizabeth asked softly as Carson stepped out from behind the curtain.

He shrugged softly, "she has her memory back, whatever drug they put in her system is gone…probably washed from her system. My guess the Wraith wanted her here just long enough to get any intel needed and get out…They didn't plan for her to be stuck here so long, anyway she's going to be fine."

"Can we see her?" John asked quietly.

"Aye," Carson replied gently.

"Thank you Carson," whispered Elizabeth.

John gripped his son's hand as they walked closer to the bed where Teyla lay quietly, John could tell she was awake, "go ahead buddy," letting his son's hand go, he watched JJ climb up onto the bed beside Teyla.

She turned to him, her beautiful eyes full of tears and regret, she whimpered slightly at the sweet boy by her side. Reaching out JJ gently tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled softly, he then lay down beside her and curled against her side, "I love you Teyla," he whispered as he held her hand.

John watched as she tried to keep her composure, she nodded softly, pressing a kiss to his forehead, "I love you too my child," she whimpered softly, closing her eyes and drifting off into a sleep.

"That child might be just what she needed," whispered Carson.

"We're gonna get through this…right?" Rodney asked.

"Aye, we've made it through everything else, this should be no different."

John sighed, he eyed his brother, then moved over, placing himself beside Teyla's bed, he gently gripped her other hand, pressing a kiss to it, he sighed. "Goodnight my love," he whispered hesitantly.

John sat in the office he had recently claimed as his own, it was two doors down from Rodney's, and while it wasn't a lab, it had everything he needed to run his part of Atlantis, suddenly the door 'whooshed' open, and Teyla entered.

"Hey," John grinned as he offered her a soft smile.

"Hi, I was just released…I felt it important to come down he and speak with you," she explained.

"Please have a seat, no need for formalities Teyla," John said smiling again.

"Very well, John…I wish to thank you, as well as JJ…I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind that something was happening, and I couldn't seem to escape. I am grateful that you and your son, care for me enough that you did not wish me harm."

John shrugged, taking a step closer to her, he gently took on of her hands in his, looking at it for a moment, "there is no one more important in my life than you and JJ," he replied simply, "I wasn't going to lose you…not after spending so much time getting to know you…to care for you," he leaned in, and was surprised when their lips met suddenly. He deepened the kiss out of instinct, his hand gently caressing her cheek as they kissed.

She drew back, smiling softly at him, "thank you again John."

"Any time," he replied as he watched her suddenly turn to leave.