Scum of the Galaxy: Chapter 7
Yes, I finally have a new update. I have also added to the profile page, if you want to take a look. My next task is to create a character list for the AU. But before I get ahead of myself, I bring the update.
Title: Scum of the Galaxy
Author: rhin_ariel
Rating: PG13 for chapter, R overall
Pairings: Sheppard/Weir, Ronon/Teyla, mentions of Ford/Teyla, hinting at Beckett/Cadman
Summary: Life and love is complicated for everyone in Pegasus. But for some people it's even more complicated than expected.
John awoke early the next morning to find everything, as it had been the night before. Part of him had been expecting to find the room trashed and Elizabeth gone, but she was still there next to him. She was curled up; her head resting on his chest as it slowly rose and fell. There was no trace of the usual soft smile she wore when she was asleep though, her face looked troubled. He gently stroked her hair with his hand, making sure not to wake her. He was trying to judge whether it would be safe to move her so he could leave. Slowly, he moved her head off his chest so he could slide off the sofa. When she didn’t stir, he lay her head down gently onto the sofa and pulled the throw from the back over her body. Her eyes fluttered a little, but she didn’t wake. Her lips moved, forming words John couldn’t understand, and then she flinched.
Part of John wanted to wake Elizabeth up there and then. He could guess what she was dreaming about and it made him feel sick to think about it. It wasn’t a dream she was having, it was a nightmare that she had already lived through once. It seemed amazing to him that this strong and decisive woman could have survived years of abuse and a life the likes of which few had ever seen or would want to see. It only made him respect her even more.
With a sigh, John realised it was time to leave. He had to find Kavaunagh before he got to Caldwell. Elizabeth’s life, as well as everyone else’s in the bar, depended on it. Before he left though he made sure to do two things. He instructed Lorne to watch over Elizabeth while he was gone. He made sure not to mention where he was going or what he was doing; he just had business to deal with. Lorne knew John was worried about Elizabeth, and he was perfectly happy to do this.
The other thing he did was to leave a note on Elizabeth’s desk where she would easily find it.
Dear Elizabeth,
I’m sorry I had to leave so early, but it is vital that I find Kavaunagh quickly. I would have stayed till you’d woken up, but time is against us, as always. I swear to you that I am going to find Kavaunagh and stop him. I don’t want you worrying about anything while I’m gone, I shouldn’t be gone that long anyway.
If anything happens to me, I just want to tell you that I love you and I will never betray you.
John Sheppard.
------
John wasn’t the only one to leave early from the bar that morning. While John chose to take the back exit, making sure Lorne was sworn to secrecy about him leaving, the other person happily left through the front door. She had no secrets.
“How long will you be gone?” asked Ronon, watching Teyla, as she got ready in his room.
“Not long. I just need to meet with Kolya to find out what this new job is,” she replied, pulling on her boots and lacing them up carefully. She knew she wasn’t really supposed to mention who she was working for, it meant she could be traced if anyone said anything. However she trusted Ronon. She trusted him with he secrets, and her life.
“Well, stay safe then,” he said at last. He was a man of few words, but he made sure to say the ones that counted.
“I will,” smiled Teyla, and Ronon felt his heart melt at the sight of her warm and loving smile. Before Teyla, he had never really known true love. There had been plenty of one night stands driven by lust, some closer to home than others, but in Teyla he had found something he’d never expected; a soul mate.
The fact that she still cared for Aiden hurt though, but he could live with it. He had built a career on being stoic and keeping his emotions hidden.
With a satisfied sigh, Teyla picked up the jacket that lay across the back of the chair and walked across to Ronon.
“I will see you soon,” she said softly, kissing him lightly on the lips. Ronon wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her in tighter, not really wanting to let her go. He knew perfectly well life was dangerous outside the bar, he had the scars to prove it, but he still felt a pang of worry whenever Teyla left. When they pulled apart, he could see the sparkle in her eyes and the colour in her cheeks that made them glow. There was something almost ethereal about her.
“Goodbye Ronon.”
“Goodbye Teyla,” he said quietly and watched her leave the room. As soon as the door shut, he turned towards the punch bag he had hanging from the ceiling. With a low growl, he punched the bag hard and dodged it as it swung back. The look on Teyla’s face when she had realised that Ford was still missing floated into he mind. She was so hurt to realise he wasn’t back, and it hurt him too. Things suddenly seemed more complicated than he had ever expected.
------
By mid morning, cleaning was well underway in the bar. Elizabeth was helping the girls to sort out their rooms, and the rooms for the clients. Ronon was cleaning up the entrance hall, and helping the girl cleaning the coat desk. Carson was cleaning the glasses behind the bar with Laura’s help. The pair had become close friends, though it seemed an odd friendship. However, something had attracted them to each other, and they grown close. Laura was now becoming an expert on the drinks behind the bar, while Carson had learned which clients were likely to pay the highest. Neither were sure why they needed to know these things, but they didn’t care.
It was becoming fairly well known amongst the girls that Laura had stronger feelings for Carson than just friendship. Some of the girls suspected that he felt the same way about her, but neither would willingly admit it to anyone other than their closest friends. In Laura’s case, this meant most of the girls had known within about thirty seconds of her telling one of them. From then on, she only confided in Elizabeth. Carson had a few people he was close to, mainly Elizabeth. The others were regular customers in the form of two computer hackers. However, he hadn’t seen either of them in a while and it was beginning to worry him.
That day, though, both Laura and Carson were in good spirits.
“Reckon she’ll let me?” asked Laura, setting down the glass she’d been polishing.
“I’m not sure lassie.”
“Everyone knows that I’d take over if anything happened to her. And it’s not like she can work here forever.”
“That’s not what I meant Laura,” sighed Carson, as he placed the glasses they’d cleaned back in their proper places.
“So what did you mean then?”
“I’m just not sure if she would support the theme you were thinking of.”
“And why not?” she asked, turning to face him with her hands on her hips. Taking in the look on her face, Carson was beginning to wish he hadn’t said anything. “Well?” she asked again, raising her eyebrows.
A loud noise from the entrance saved Carson from any further questioning from Laura. The loud noise was then replaced by loud shouting.
“Ronon, it’s me for goodness sake! Remember, Rodney McKay. Just let me in, I need to talk to Elizabeth!”
When it became apparent Ronon wasn’t letting him in, Carson hurried around the bar and up the stairs to the entrance. Inside the entrance, he found himself at a loss for words. Ronon appeared to be arguing with a smartly dressed businessman, not the infamous computer hacker. Suddenly, the man turned to face Carson and let out a sigh.
“Carson, thank you. Can you tell this walking mountain who I am, I seem to be unable to get through to him. And heaven help him when I tell Elizabeth about this.”
For a few seconds, Carson tried to take it all in. The man was dressed in a dark blue suit, pale blue shirt and dark blue tie. His black hair was slicked back with more hair gel than he was sure was medically safe. A pair of thick-rimmed glasses and a goatee completed the look. He had to admit it certainly didn’t look like Rodney McKay, but his manner and choice of insults certainly made it sound like him. On top of that, Rodney did have to disguise himself for his jobs in order to go undetected while he entered various buildings and hacked their computers.
“Ronon, you can let him in,” said Carson at last, sensing that if he was here in disguise it must be urgent. Ronon nodded in response and stood back to let him in. Rodney shot him a look of pure malice before entering the bar. “Don’t take it personally,” whispered Carson as he was about to leave. “He does it to everyone.” Ronon made no indication to show that he did.
Re-entering the bar, he found Rodney already furiously arguing with Laura. The pair had had a love hate relationship from when they first met.
“Just tell me where she is, it’s important,” Rodney demanded.
“Why don’t you try being polite first? A please, an excuse me, you know, anything!” she responded, staring him down.
“There’s no time!”
“Laura,” Carson called out, forcing them both to be quiet. “Just tell him where she is.”
“Fine. Down the corridor,” she responded sulkily, vaguely indicating one of the corridors. There was no thank you as he darted off towards the corridor. Laura watched him, arms folded, shooting daggers at him with her eyes.
“Try to calm down Laura,” began Carson, in a soothing voice. “If he says it’s important, it probably is.”
------
“Elizabeth!” he shouted down the corridor, and the girls quickly moved back to let him pass. He eventually found Elizabeth at the end of the corridor with a couple of the girls. They were all sweeping the floor in and around the rooms. He watched as she looked and then continued to stare at him, completely baffled. “It’s me, Rodney,” he said at last, and she began to smile.
“Rodney,” she said, pulling him into a hug. “It’s great to see you. Nice suit. How are you?”
“Not good. I need to talk to you. In private. Now,” he said quickly. Elizabeth could see he looked worried, and that concerned her. Rodney McKay was never worried about anything. He was always confident. Or more that he was over confident about everything, but the point still stood.
“We can talk in my room,” she said quietly, and led the way to her quarters. As soon as she had let him in, he flopped down on the couch and took off his glasses. As soon as she’d shut the door, he turned to face her and stared at her hard.
“Rodney, what’s wrong?” she asked, sitting down next to him.
“You have a major problem Elizabeth,” he replied.
“Me?”
“Yes. You see I got a very urgent message from Zelenka this morning. It was a video message accompanied by some typed documents. He was given a job a few weeks ago by Caldwell to hack into some computer systems.” He paused, and saw how Elizabeth’s face drained off colour at the mention of Caldwell.
“The message he sent me said he had overhead a conversation Caldwell had had earlier in the day, late last night for us. Apparently Kavaunagh showed up at Caldwell’s with some very interesting information. Information about you.”
Unable to listen anymore, Elizabeth stood up and walked away from him. Fear had taken hold of her body and it made her feel physically sick. Coldness swept down her spine and tears sprang to her eyes. She heard Rodney stand up and move closer to her, but she didn’t dare turn around. She didn’t want other people to see her cry; she had to be strong.
“You’ve done well to keep it a secret so long,” he said softly, sounding almost remorseful.
“So Caldwell knows who I am?” she asked, praying for a miracle that she knew wasn’t coming.
“Yes. And where you are. But there’s more.”
Now Elizabeth did spin round, fearing that it would be news of John. She fought to keep the tears back, but it was hard. In the end she bit down on her lip so hard it was almost bleeding. She nodded for Rodney to continue.
“Kolya knows too,” he said at last.
“What?” she asked in disbelief.
“Zelenka had been paid to hack Kolya’s computer through his network with those he works with. Most of the files were heavily encrypted, but as Zelenka was making up the message, he said one came onto the network with fewer encryptions. Apparently it was so new and urgent that it had to be passed as soon as possible, regardless of security. Kolya was sending a message to someone he knew announcing that he had a way to take control of ‘The Red Den’. In exchange for control of the bar, he was going to promise not to reveal to Caldwell who you were and where you were.”
“Kavaunagh must have gone to him too,” Elizabeth gasped, suddenly feeling faint. Everything she had worked so hard towards for ten years was about to be taken away from her. Rodney could see her wobbling, so quickly took her arm and guided her back to the couch and sat her down. She was breathing deeply, trying to calm herself, but it was doing no good.
“I’m trapped,” she said at last, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
“What do you mean?” he asked, clearly concerned about her.
“I can’t leave the girls to this. In a few hours we are probably going to have two sets of gangs on out doorstep. I would be leaving the girls to a war. But I can’t stay either. One gang boss will promise to protect me in exchange for my bar, while the other is going to take me, and this bar, by force. I can’t win whatever I do.”
“Elizabeth, right now you have to think about what’s best for you.”
“I can’t, this is my home. My friends are here. If I leave they will hunt down me down through them. They’ll torture them to find me, or at least Caldwell will. He would kill John…John!”
Suddenly, Elizabeth was on her feet, her eyes wide. She shook her head slowly, and quickly went to her desk.
“Elizabeth?” Rodney asked, standing slowly.
“John went to find Kavaunagh. If he goes to Caldwell, then he’ll find out who John is and that we were sleeping together. He’ll kill him and it’ll be all my fault. I still have the address to Caldwell’s home. I can go back there and try to find John before they do. Or I could send someone else to warn John. I can’t leave him to die. I can’t lose him,” she said in a rush. As she spoke, she began to sway a little as she searched her desk. When she finished, she stood up straight and looked at Rodney. There were tears rolling down her face and she was as pale as a ghost.
Without warning, her eyes rolled upwards and she collapsed sideways. Rodney could only watch in shock as she fell to the floor in a heap, her arms stretched outwards. After a few moments, he pulled himself together. He ran to the door, and began shouting for someone to get Carson. Then he turned back and went back to Elizabeth. He knelt down next to her and pushed the hair back from her face. Glancing up, he saw in one of her hands she was clutching a piece of a paper. He removed it with a sigh, expecting it to be the Gate address. Instead he found himself reading a small note, and his heart grew cold.
If anything happens to me, I just want to tell you that I love you and I will never betray you.
John Sheppard.
Title: Scum of the Galaxy
Author: rhin_ariel
Rating: PG13 for chapter, R overall
Pairings: Sheppard/Weir, Ronon/Teyla, mentions of Ford/Teyla, hinting at Beckett/Cadman
Summary: Life and love is complicated for everyone in Pegasus. But for some people it's even more complicated than expected.
John awoke early the next morning to find everything, as it had been the night before. Part of him had been expecting to find the room trashed and Elizabeth gone, but she was still there next to him. She was curled up; her head resting on his chest as it slowly rose and fell. There was no trace of the usual soft smile she wore when she was asleep though, her face looked troubled. He gently stroked her hair with his hand, making sure not to wake her. He was trying to judge whether it would be safe to move her so he could leave. Slowly, he moved her head off his chest so he could slide off the sofa. When she didn’t stir, he lay her head down gently onto the sofa and pulled the throw from the back over her body. Her eyes fluttered a little, but she didn’t wake. Her lips moved, forming words John couldn’t understand, and then she flinched.
Part of John wanted to wake Elizabeth up there and then. He could guess what she was dreaming about and it made him feel sick to think about it. It wasn’t a dream she was having, it was a nightmare that she had already lived through once. It seemed amazing to him that this strong and decisive woman could have survived years of abuse and a life the likes of which few had ever seen or would want to see. It only made him respect her even more.
With a sigh, John realised it was time to leave. He had to find Kavaunagh before he got to Caldwell. Elizabeth’s life, as well as everyone else’s in the bar, depended on it. Before he left though he made sure to do two things. He instructed Lorne to watch over Elizabeth while he was gone. He made sure not to mention where he was going or what he was doing; he just had business to deal with. Lorne knew John was worried about Elizabeth, and he was perfectly happy to do this.
The other thing he did was to leave a note on Elizabeth’s desk where she would easily find it.
Dear Elizabeth,
I’m sorry I had to leave so early, but it is vital that I find Kavaunagh quickly. I would have stayed till you’d woken up, but time is against us, as always. I swear to you that I am going to find Kavaunagh and stop him. I don’t want you worrying about anything while I’m gone, I shouldn’t be gone that long anyway.
If anything happens to me, I just want to tell you that I love you and I will never betray you.
John Sheppard.
------
John wasn’t the only one to leave early from the bar that morning. While John chose to take the back exit, making sure Lorne was sworn to secrecy about him leaving, the other person happily left through the front door. She had no secrets.
“How long will you be gone?” asked Ronon, watching Teyla, as she got ready in his room.
“Not long. I just need to meet with Kolya to find out what this new job is,” she replied, pulling on her boots and lacing them up carefully. She knew she wasn’t really supposed to mention who she was working for, it meant she could be traced if anyone said anything. However she trusted Ronon. She trusted him with he secrets, and her life.
“Well, stay safe then,” he said at last. He was a man of few words, but he made sure to say the ones that counted.
“I will,” smiled Teyla, and Ronon felt his heart melt at the sight of her warm and loving smile. Before Teyla, he had never really known true love. There had been plenty of one night stands driven by lust, some closer to home than others, but in Teyla he had found something he’d never expected; a soul mate.
The fact that she still cared for Aiden hurt though, but he could live with it. He had built a career on being stoic and keeping his emotions hidden.
With a satisfied sigh, Teyla picked up the jacket that lay across the back of the chair and walked across to Ronon.
“I will see you soon,” she said softly, kissing him lightly on the lips. Ronon wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her in tighter, not really wanting to let her go. He knew perfectly well life was dangerous outside the bar, he had the scars to prove it, but he still felt a pang of worry whenever Teyla left. When they pulled apart, he could see the sparkle in her eyes and the colour in her cheeks that made them glow. There was something almost ethereal about her.
“Goodbye Ronon.”
“Goodbye Teyla,” he said quietly and watched her leave the room. As soon as the door shut, he turned towards the punch bag he had hanging from the ceiling. With a low growl, he punched the bag hard and dodged it as it swung back. The look on Teyla’s face when she had realised that Ford was still missing floated into he mind. She was so hurt to realise he wasn’t back, and it hurt him too. Things suddenly seemed more complicated than he had ever expected.
------
By mid morning, cleaning was well underway in the bar. Elizabeth was helping the girls to sort out their rooms, and the rooms for the clients. Ronon was cleaning up the entrance hall, and helping the girl cleaning the coat desk. Carson was cleaning the glasses behind the bar with Laura’s help. The pair had become close friends, though it seemed an odd friendship. However, something had attracted them to each other, and they grown close. Laura was now becoming an expert on the drinks behind the bar, while Carson had learned which clients were likely to pay the highest. Neither were sure why they needed to know these things, but they didn’t care.
It was becoming fairly well known amongst the girls that Laura had stronger feelings for Carson than just friendship. Some of the girls suspected that he felt the same way about her, but neither would willingly admit it to anyone other than their closest friends. In Laura’s case, this meant most of the girls had known within about thirty seconds of her telling one of them. From then on, she only confided in Elizabeth. Carson had a few people he was close to, mainly Elizabeth. The others were regular customers in the form of two computer hackers. However, he hadn’t seen either of them in a while and it was beginning to worry him.
That day, though, both Laura and Carson were in good spirits.
“Reckon she’ll let me?” asked Laura, setting down the glass she’d been polishing.
“I’m not sure lassie.”
“Everyone knows that I’d take over if anything happened to her. And it’s not like she can work here forever.”
“That’s not what I meant Laura,” sighed Carson, as he placed the glasses they’d cleaned back in their proper places.
“So what did you mean then?”
“I’m just not sure if she would support the theme you were thinking of.”
“And why not?” she asked, turning to face him with her hands on her hips. Taking in the look on her face, Carson was beginning to wish he hadn’t said anything. “Well?” she asked again, raising her eyebrows.
A loud noise from the entrance saved Carson from any further questioning from Laura. The loud noise was then replaced by loud shouting.
“Ronon, it’s me for goodness sake! Remember, Rodney McKay. Just let me in, I need to talk to Elizabeth!”
When it became apparent Ronon wasn’t letting him in, Carson hurried around the bar and up the stairs to the entrance. Inside the entrance, he found himself at a loss for words. Ronon appeared to be arguing with a smartly dressed businessman, not the infamous computer hacker. Suddenly, the man turned to face Carson and let out a sigh.
“Carson, thank you. Can you tell this walking mountain who I am, I seem to be unable to get through to him. And heaven help him when I tell Elizabeth about this.”
For a few seconds, Carson tried to take it all in. The man was dressed in a dark blue suit, pale blue shirt and dark blue tie. His black hair was slicked back with more hair gel than he was sure was medically safe. A pair of thick-rimmed glasses and a goatee completed the look. He had to admit it certainly didn’t look like Rodney McKay, but his manner and choice of insults certainly made it sound like him. On top of that, Rodney did have to disguise himself for his jobs in order to go undetected while he entered various buildings and hacked their computers.
“Ronon, you can let him in,” said Carson at last, sensing that if he was here in disguise it must be urgent. Ronon nodded in response and stood back to let him in. Rodney shot him a look of pure malice before entering the bar. “Don’t take it personally,” whispered Carson as he was about to leave. “He does it to everyone.” Ronon made no indication to show that he did.
Re-entering the bar, he found Rodney already furiously arguing with Laura. The pair had had a love hate relationship from when they first met.
“Just tell me where she is, it’s important,” Rodney demanded.
“Why don’t you try being polite first? A please, an excuse me, you know, anything!” she responded, staring him down.
“There’s no time!”
“Laura,” Carson called out, forcing them both to be quiet. “Just tell him where she is.”
“Fine. Down the corridor,” she responded sulkily, vaguely indicating one of the corridors. There was no thank you as he darted off towards the corridor. Laura watched him, arms folded, shooting daggers at him with her eyes.
“Try to calm down Laura,” began Carson, in a soothing voice. “If he says it’s important, it probably is.”
------
“Elizabeth!” he shouted down the corridor, and the girls quickly moved back to let him pass. He eventually found Elizabeth at the end of the corridor with a couple of the girls. They were all sweeping the floor in and around the rooms. He watched as she looked and then continued to stare at him, completely baffled. “It’s me, Rodney,” he said at last, and she began to smile.
“Rodney,” she said, pulling him into a hug. “It’s great to see you. Nice suit. How are you?”
“Not good. I need to talk to you. In private. Now,” he said quickly. Elizabeth could see he looked worried, and that concerned her. Rodney McKay was never worried about anything. He was always confident. Or more that he was over confident about everything, but the point still stood.
“We can talk in my room,” she said quietly, and led the way to her quarters. As soon as she had let him in, he flopped down on the couch and took off his glasses. As soon as she’d shut the door, he turned to face her and stared at her hard.
“Rodney, what’s wrong?” she asked, sitting down next to him.
“You have a major problem Elizabeth,” he replied.
“Me?”
“Yes. You see I got a very urgent message from Zelenka this morning. It was a video message accompanied by some typed documents. He was given a job a few weeks ago by Caldwell to hack into some computer systems.” He paused, and saw how Elizabeth’s face drained off colour at the mention of Caldwell.
“The message he sent me said he had overhead a conversation Caldwell had had earlier in the day, late last night for us. Apparently Kavaunagh showed up at Caldwell’s with some very interesting information. Information about you.”
Unable to listen anymore, Elizabeth stood up and walked away from him. Fear had taken hold of her body and it made her feel physically sick. Coldness swept down her spine and tears sprang to her eyes. She heard Rodney stand up and move closer to her, but she didn’t dare turn around. She didn’t want other people to see her cry; she had to be strong.
“You’ve done well to keep it a secret so long,” he said softly, sounding almost remorseful.
“So Caldwell knows who I am?” she asked, praying for a miracle that she knew wasn’t coming.
“Yes. And where you are. But there’s more.”
Now Elizabeth did spin round, fearing that it would be news of John. She fought to keep the tears back, but it was hard. In the end she bit down on her lip so hard it was almost bleeding. She nodded for Rodney to continue.
“Kolya knows too,” he said at last.
“What?” she asked in disbelief.
“Zelenka had been paid to hack Kolya’s computer through his network with those he works with. Most of the files were heavily encrypted, but as Zelenka was making up the message, he said one came onto the network with fewer encryptions. Apparently it was so new and urgent that it had to be passed as soon as possible, regardless of security. Kolya was sending a message to someone he knew announcing that he had a way to take control of ‘The Red Den’. In exchange for control of the bar, he was going to promise not to reveal to Caldwell who you were and where you were.”
“Kavaunagh must have gone to him too,” Elizabeth gasped, suddenly feeling faint. Everything she had worked so hard towards for ten years was about to be taken away from her. Rodney could see her wobbling, so quickly took her arm and guided her back to the couch and sat her down. She was breathing deeply, trying to calm herself, but it was doing no good.
“I’m trapped,” she said at last, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
“What do you mean?” he asked, clearly concerned about her.
“I can’t leave the girls to this. In a few hours we are probably going to have two sets of gangs on out doorstep. I would be leaving the girls to a war. But I can’t stay either. One gang boss will promise to protect me in exchange for my bar, while the other is going to take me, and this bar, by force. I can’t win whatever I do.”
“Elizabeth, right now you have to think about what’s best for you.”
“I can’t, this is my home. My friends are here. If I leave they will hunt down me down through them. They’ll torture them to find me, or at least Caldwell will. He would kill John…John!”
Suddenly, Elizabeth was on her feet, her eyes wide. She shook her head slowly, and quickly went to her desk.
“Elizabeth?” Rodney asked, standing slowly.
“John went to find Kavaunagh. If he goes to Caldwell, then he’ll find out who John is and that we were sleeping together. He’ll kill him and it’ll be all my fault. I still have the address to Caldwell’s home. I can go back there and try to find John before they do. Or I could send someone else to warn John. I can’t leave him to die. I can’t lose him,” she said in a rush. As she spoke, she began to sway a little as she searched her desk. When she finished, she stood up straight and looked at Rodney. There were tears rolling down her face and she was as pale as a ghost.
Without warning, her eyes rolled upwards and she collapsed sideways. Rodney could only watch in shock as she fell to the floor in a heap, her arms stretched outwards. After a few moments, he pulled himself together. He ran to the door, and began shouting for someone to get Carson. Then he turned back and went back to Elizabeth. He knelt down next to her and pushed the hair back from her face. Glancing up, he saw in one of her hands she was clutching a piece of a paper. He removed it with a sigh, expecting it to be the Gate address. Instead he found himself reading a small note, and his heart grew cold.
If anything happens to me, I just want to tell you that I love you and I will never betray you.
John Sheppard.