Steph7085 – Thanks for the review, I hope you like this chapter.

Mrs Rosemary Weir – Thanks for the review, I’m glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one too.

Jammeke – I’m glad you liked the ending of the last chapter; I thought the Sparky fans might enjoy that part. Also it’s good to know that my rebuilding the relationship between Elizabeth and Teyla is coming across well, it’s a slow process but hopefully they’ll get there eventually. Thanks for the review.

Kuroima – I’m glad you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for the review.

Chapter 20

John had purposely taken his time in getting to Abavon. It wasn’t that he wanted to let more people there die but he knew that as soon as Elizabeth got there she’d want to find and destroy the shadow warrior there. She hadn’t been in any condition to do that though, it had taken a while for her to heal from the injuries she sustained during her kidnapping and she still wasn’t back to a hundred percent. He couldn’t stall anymore though, lives were on the line and he’d had to force himself not to think about the lives that were lost while he’d been taking his time, consoling himself with the knowledge that Elizabeth wouldn’t have been able to take on the Shadow anyway, not without serious consequences for her.

John had been relieved to find the police on Abavon were a lot more welcoming than the last ones he’d come across. He’d already spoken to the chief of police who had done nothing but express his gratitude that he was bringing the Electus to his city. John had already decided that Elizabeth would be lucky to make it out of his sight while they were on the planet, he didn’t care how much having him constantly hovering would irritate her, at least he’d know she was safe.

He landed the ship in the port and headed through to the cargo bay where everyone else was waiting. There visits to these planets were so routine by now that he didn’t even bother giving out instructions. He just sent Lorne with Rodney and Laura with her huusband and everyone was on their way, ready to do their part.

“You ready?” he asked Elizabeth once they were the only ones left on the ship. They were briefing the police force themselves this time instead of sending Ronon and Teyla to do it. The former Vernai were getting started on the witness list while John and Elizabeth took on the slightly less stressful task of talking to the cops. It would be a good way to ease Elizabeth back into work and John could get a feel for the cops, whether any of them were likely to do something stupid.

He knew it was unlikely that what had happened on the last planet they’d been to would happen again but his mind was telling him there was still a chance. He partly blamed himself that it had happened in the first place, that he’d allowed her to get taken and hadn’t even noticed until Marcus had pointed out that she wasn’t around. He knew if it happened again it was all on him, it would be his fault for not heeding the warning and taking better care of her, she wasn’t just his partner, she was his girlfriend which sounded odd but that’s what she was.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Elizabeth replied resting her hand on her side arm for a moment as she left the ship, the action didn’t go unnoticed by John; he wasn’t the only one worried. He followed her out of the cargo bay and into the space port, closing and locking up the ship before the two of them made their way out of the port. The police station wasn’t far away, they were usually close to the port, and it didn’t take them long to get there.

The chief of police greeted them almost before they were through the door, he shook both their hands enthusiastically and John relaxed somewhat when he sensed nothing but genuine gratitude from the man. Then again, he hadn’t sensed any threat from Chief Brightman either and he’d ended up kidnapping Elizabeth and authorising her torture.

“I’m so glad you’ve come. The Shadow seems to have stepped up its activity in the last couple of weeks. We’re losing a lot of people; anything you can do to help would be appreciated,” the chief said as he led them through to a large room where at least half the cops on the force had been assembled. They were all sat in rows, many of them turned around in their chairs to have conversations with the people around them. A hush came over the room as the chief stepped in front of them all, John and Elizabeth standing behind him.

“Thank you all for waiting. As you know several Alliance Agents were due to arrive this afternoon along with the Electus. We have Agent’s Sheppard and Weir here with us now to go through with you everything you need to know,” the chief told them and then moved to sit down with his officers.

“Alright, thank you all for being here,” John began. “I’ll tell you all now this is going to be a very brief meeting. We don’t know much about the Shadows but in the event that anything we do know becomes useful we’re going to give you a run down.”

“The first thing you need to know,” Elizabeth took over. “And this is maybe the most important thing, is that there is nothing any of you can do to combat the Shadows. That’s not to say there’s no way for you save lives but you should not attempt to confront them. Bullets have no effect on them; neither does any other weapon you have. If you try to fight these things the only thing that will happen is it will turn on you and kill you.”

“The only steps you can take against the Shadows are preventative ones; you can limit the number of people it kills by limiting the number of people it can get to. You’ve already done several things to help with this, imposing a curfew, cancelling large public gatherings. However in our experience the Shadows prefer to attack small groups of people, it will often stay to the outskirts of the city only occasionally venturing further in. It will prefer to stay close to a hiding place and it will probably use the same hiding place repeatedly,” John informed them and he could see several officers taking notes as he spoke.

“These shadows don’t discriminate,” Elizabeth told them. “It will attack whatever targets it fixates on, men, women and children. We believe it picks out its targets and wait for the opportune moment to strike however it will get impatient and attack anyway if an opportunity doesn’t present itself.”

The rest of the briefing went on similarly, a few questions were asked and only a few of them had answers but the cops seemed pleased to be a little more in the know when they left. John radioed Ronon and Teyla to check on the progress with the witness list before he and Elizabeth started on their half.

The witness list hadn’t been as long as some of the previous ones had been so it hadn’t taken Ronon and Teyla long to get through their part of it. They’d even taken on some of Sheppard’s and Elizabeth’s since, despite stubborn assurances that she was fine, she wasn’t moving as quickly as she normally would be. It had been less than a week since she’d been kidnapped and though the cuts and bruises were fading they were still obvious. Her black eye was more or less healed but the yellow bruising was still evident as was the not quite healed cut on her lips. The only other obvious signs of the beating she’d endured were on her neck but they were fading now too.

It was mostly her ribs that were causing her a problem now and Teyla still felt sympathy pains when she saw the woman reach for something or move a little too quickly. The wince of pain on her face would be fleeting and quickly covered up but everyone one the ship could see she was still struggling.

Teyla sighed as closed her eyes and lay down on her bed, she frowned when she heard Ronon chuckle but she didn’t even bother to glare at him, she was too tired. She felt the bed dip beside her and opened her eyes to see Ronon sitting next to her with a thoughtful look on his face.

“What?” she questioned when he remained silent.

“I was just thinking,” Ronon replied in a tone that told her she wouldn’t be getting any further explanation, at least not until he was ready to give it. She knew better than to push him, he’d tell her when he wanted to and not before. She closed her eyes again and shifted to make herself more comfortable on the bed deciding she wasn’t going to move from there until tomorrow if she could help it.

She could feel Ronon’s eyes on her though and when the feeling didn’t cease she opened her own again to glare at him. “Either tell me or quit staring,” she said and he smiled as he shook his head and stood up.

“I’m gonna get something to eat, you want mo to bring you anything?” he questioned and she shook her head.

“No thanks,” she replied.

“Alright, I’ll see you,” he said as he leant over the bed, dropping a kiss on her lips before he walked out of the room and Teyla was left to stare at the closed door. He’d been doing that a lot lately, staring at her for no reason. She’d woken up the other morning to find him watching her sleep and as endearing as she found his sudden attention to be, she was more than a little confused as to why he suddenly felt the need to mentally document her every move.

She’d confess to herself the occasional moment of watching him, she’d even watched him sleep herself once or twice but never for so long, never so intently that she got herself caught. She could only imagine the teasing she’d have to endure if he realised she’d been watching him sleep and she briefly considered teasing him for it herself. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable though and if she was honest she didn’t like the thought that he might stop doing it.

She sighed again, she was getting soft.

“I don’t care if it’s the greatest discovery mankind has ever known, you pull my guns to pieces again and I’ll kill you,” Laura half yelled as she put the gun back together that Rodney had taken to pieces.

“I just needed one of the parts for an experiment, I’ve given you it back and it’s still in one piece so stop over reacting,” Rodney shot back at her and she glared at him wishing her eyes could burn a hole right through his oversized head. She would have leant him the piece if he’d just asked but no, he had to pull her gun apart and take it, he could have broken something and these weren’t exactly the cheapest gun parts to replace.

“You want something of mine, you ask me for it, don’t just take it,” Laura yelled as Marcus walked in the room.

“What’s going on?” he questioned looking between the two.

“Rodney pulled my gun to pieces,” Laura told him and Marcus raised an eyebrow at Rodney.

“Do you have a death wish, even I know better than to mess with her guns Rodney?” Marcus questioned and Laura smiled. It had become a widely known fact that there were two things In Laura’s life that nobody messed with without paying for it; they were Carson and her guns. A lot of her guns weren’t standard alliance issue, they were ones she’d bought herself, some of them were rare, a few were custom made and all of them were expensive.

“I was just borrowing a part,” Rodney defended.

“What are you three arguing about now?” John questioned as he and Elizabeth entered the room.

“Rodney pulled Laura’s guns to pieces so he could borrow a part for an experiment,” Marcus explained and John winced.

“Are you nuts Rodney?” John asked and Rodney threw his hands up in defeat and stormed out of the room like a child.

“Well, that was refreshing,” Marcus stated as he stretched his arms over his head. “It’s been a while since the three of us had a good argument.”

“Just try not to be too hard on him,” Elizabeth said as she left the room again and John followed after her. Marcus turned to Laura with a slightly confused look on his face that probably matched the one she knew was on hers.

“I don’t think we were too hard on him, that was soft and brief compared to usual,” he said and Laura nodded her agreement. “Besides, occasionally he needs us to bring him down a peg or two otherwise his oversized head wouldn’t be able to get through doors,” he continued as Laura clicked the last part of her gun into place and went to put it back where it belonged. Their bickering might be all in good fun but she really would kill him if he messed with her guns again.

John turned the car around the corner a little faster than he probably should have and he felt Elizabeth direct a glare at him when she was slammed against the car door. He continued to speed down the street, hearing the sirens of police cars that were heading to the same place. The shadow had been spotted in a children’s playground at a park in the suburbs. According to the officer who had radioed him it was a busy park, especially at this time of day and would be filled with young children.

“John, I know it’s important that we get there quickly but if we die in a fiery car crash on the way there then we’ll be of no use to anyone,” Elizabeth pointed out as he continued to speed along the road, weaving his way through several other cars as he did so.

“I know that,” he told her as passed a large transport truck and barely avoided the oncoming traffic. “Why the hell is there so many people on the road, shouldn’t you all be at work?” he yelled and watched Elizabeth flinch as he navigated between two cars.

He was sure he heard Elizabeth breathe a sigh of relief as they pulled up beside the masses of police cars. People were being evacuated from the area, parents running with their children to get out of the path of the shadow. They ran into the park where Marcus, Laura and Carson were already there helping with the evacuation.

“Any sign of the shadow?” John questioned as he ran over to them.

“Not since we got here,” Marcus told him and Elizabeth took off toward some trees a short distance away.

“It’s this way,” she called as she ran off, John and the others were quick to follow her. Ronon and Teyla arrived as they entered the trees and John glanced back to make sure they were following before continuing after Elizabeth. She was moving through the trees quicker than he would have liked, Teyla and Ronon were going to struggle to catch up. “There.”

Elizabeth stopped and pointed ahead of her, it took him a moment to see what she was looking at. The shadow was using the darkness created by the trees to hide itself, only the outline of it moving and the white eyes gave it away. It disappeared then, Elizabeth took off after it only to stop where it had been and look around her with a frown.

“It’s gone,” she stated still looking around.

“What do you mean gone, it was right here?” Laura questioned and Elizabeth shook her head.

“I mean it’s gone, I can’t sense it anymore,” she told them.

“Your connection with them isn’t as strong as it was with the Cloud, it might still be here even if you can’t sense it,” Carson pointed out.

“The park would make a good hiding place too,” Marcus added.

John nodded as Ronon and Teyla appeared through the trees. “Alright, let’s head back and make sure everyone has been evacuated. Once everyone is out of here we’ll search the entire park, if it’s still here we’ll find it.”

There were nods of agreement all around as they headed back out of the trees to where even more cops had arrived. John went to find out who was in charge to let them know the plan as everyone else concentrated on getting the remaining civilians evacuated. He was directed to detective Adams who was yelling orders out as he moved around.

“Agent Sheppard,” he greeted as John approached him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise. We found the shadow but it left before we could get close enough to it. We can’t be sure it’s left the park so we recommend finishing the evacuation and then doing a full sweep of the park to make sure it’s not still here,” John told him and Adams gave his agreement, not that he had much of a choice. He may have used the word ‘recommend’ but John could supersede local law enforcement in this matter and several others. “Once the evacuation is complete we’ll need to speak with anyone who will be involved in the search before they’re allowed to participate.”

Adams didn’t look happy about being given orders but nodded and accepted them anyway as he walked away.

After spending the majority of the day searching the park nothing had been found, the Shadow had obviously left the area, probably after sensing Elizabeth and Teyla’s presence. The team had returned to the ship feeling a little dejected that they hadn’t been able to get it but at the same time no one had been killed which was something. Carson finished chopping the last of the vegetables and put them in the pan to cook smiling to Elizabeth as she entered the kitchen.

“I thought I could smell good food,” she stated as she sat down on the kitchen stool nearby. “You should have told me you were cooking I would have come and helped.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind, it gives me something to do other than look through autopsy reports and blood test results, gives me something other than the Shadows to focus on,” he told her and she nodded her head understandingly.

“That’s why I keep my books with me, they’re a good escape, I think we would all have gone crazy by now if we didn’t have something else to focus on once in a while. John and Marcus works out, Marcus, Laura and Rodney torture each other, Laura cleans her guns and Rodney does his experiments. I don’t know what Dex and Teyla do but I’m sure they have something.” Elizabeth replied just before the two people in question came into the room.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” Carson told them before they could leave again and found himself rather enjoying the look of surprise on their faces.

“You have made dinner for us?” Teyla questioned.

“I’ve made dinner for everyone, it’s my unofficial job since no one else can cook,” he told them laughing when Elizabeth swatted his arm. “You assist me,” he told her. “If I left you to do it yourself we’d all be in trouble but I’ll admit, you’ve got more chance of producing a decent meal than any of the others.”

“I’ll take that,” Elizabeth replied with a smile.

“Hey, what’s cooking doc?” Marcus questioned as he came in with Rodney.

“Food,” Carson told him. “Go get John and Laura, everyone else get your butts to the table. Except you Elizabeth, you can help me put everything on plates in a minute.”

“Be happy too,” Elizabeth said as she jumped down from the stool and went to get the plates from the lower cupboard spreading them out across the counter. Marcus returned with the final two members of their crew in tow and sat down at the table. Laura glanced at the two former Vernai but wordlessly sat down in between Marcus and the empty chair Carson would be sitting in. Elizabeth watched the table for a moment, waiting for some kind of argument or fight to break out but it didn’t. Laura started talking to Marcus about a new gun she was trying to get her hands on, Rodney was trying to tell a half listening John about an experiment and Ronon and Teyla were having their own quiet conversation.

“Almost seems surreal doesn’t it?” Carson questioned as he stood beside her and dished out the potatoes, his eyes continuously moving between the food and the table. “I never thought I’d see the day all of them sat at the table together and not one argument started.”

“Dinner hasn’t even started yet Carson, give it time,” she joked hoping that maybe the peace could last long enough for them to eat and all go about their own business again.

The teenager was shaking and very obviously terrified and Teyla did her best to keep him calm while she spoke to him. Ronon, Elizabeth and Sheppard were all speaking to other witnesses while Laura and Marcus spoke to the cops that were present and Carson and Rodney got the samples they needed from the scene and the body. The attack had been during the night, the coroner had put time of death around 2am but the body hadn’t been discovered until 7am when the curfew ended. She sighed as she glanced back at the teenager who had probably been on his way home from a party; the curfew had been put in place for a reason.

The body had been found by a young couple but they’d learned very quickly that the teenage victim’s friends had been with him when the shadow attacked. They’d come forward just before the Venture crew had arrived and the two agents and two former Vernai had split up to handle the witnesses quickly. She finished with her questions, learning nothing she couldn’t have guessed herself and told the boy he could go back to his parents.

“Get anything?” Elizabeth questioned as she walked over and Teyla shook her head.

“Nothing new,” she replied glancing at the girl Elizabeth had been speaking to as she hugged her parents. “You?”

“Nothing new,” she echoed and Teyla looked over to where Ronon was just finishing talking to the couple.

“I doubt we’ll get anything new from any of them, we never do,” she stated and Elizabeth shrugged.

“We’ve got to do the interviews anyway, we can’t risk that one of them might have known something, however small, it could end up making all the difference,” Elizabeth said as they walked over to where Beckett and McKay were. “How’s it going?”

“I have everything I need from here,” Carson stated. “I’ll be following the body to the morgue to finish up.”

“And I’m just collecting my last sample,” Rodney added as he put the lid on a test tube and packed it away into his kit.

“Alright, head back to the ship and start your analysis, we’ve already lost a lot of time on this one,” she told him and Rodney nodded as he left. Teyla looked over Elizabeth realising again how much she’d changed since Corlain. She was well suited to this roll, something Teyla would never have guessed back then. There was screaming up ahead and Teyla saw several people running toward them, the shadow following behind them.

She and Elizabeth took off toward it without either of them needing to say anything. Police started shouting, ordering people to get back, to get out of the way. The shadow stopped once it sensed them, froze in place as Elizabeth and Teyla came to a stop in front of it. She could feel something strange, something new, emotion, she could feel emotion coming from it and it made her stomach turn. Hate and anger on a level she’d never experienced before, it made the way she had felt about Elizabeth seem mild and insignificant. There was lust for death, a desire to cause it, see it, feel it and Teyla felt sick. She glanced at Elizabeth and knew the woman was feeling the same things.

It advanced on them so fast they had no time to react, one moment it was still and the next it was on them. They had no connection to each other and the pain was so excruciating she couldn’t think straight enough to reach for Elizabeth. She heard the cry of pain that made it passed her lips, heard it echoed back to her from Elizabeth.

Then she felt something else, death. She could feel it crawling inside of her, cold and sharp and dark and it was claiming her a little bit at a time. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe but somewhere in her mind she registered the thought that she didn’t want to die, at least not without taking this thing with her. She reached her hand out blindly, hoping that it would find Elizabeth and not believing her luck when it did. She felt the sleeve of her jacket, felt Elizabeth move to take her hand. The pain suddenly became sharper, colder but the dark was replaced by light. Instead of feeling death filling her she felt life leaving her and she marvelled that there was actually a difference even if the end was the same.

She screamed, it was too much and just when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, when she was ready to call it quits, it ended. Everything stopped, sound, light, pain, thought, there was nothing.

TBC