She leaned carefully over her knee to tie her boots so she wouldn’t put any extra pressure on her stomach. The pants she was wearing did enough of that on their own and she had to hold her breath in for the moment it took her to hook the laces and tie them. As she straightened up, she couldn’t help but run her hand along her pant leg feeling the soft material under her palms and the soft woollen fluff against her calf.

Her foot back on the ground, she tried to adjust the waist band to relive the strain on her unborn baby and gasped as Teyla slipped her fingers under it at the sides. Teyla tugged for a moment at the band before slipping a small pair of scissors between Elizabeth’s skin and the cloth. She made a small incision before slipping a safety pin in place against her skin.

“Thanks,” Elizabeth said feeling the relief of loser pants.

She picked up her own work pants and folded them neatly before placing them on the nearby chair. When she turned around, Teyla was holding out a woollen top to match her pants. It took her a moment to realise that the world they were going to would be sub-zero temperature and that her current, standard t-shirt would not do, even if she was going to be wearing a very warm coat. She smiled as she accepted the top and laid it carefully on the bed before shredding her red uniform shirt.

“John is still unsure you should be going,” Teyla offered.

“I’m still not sure,” she admitted with a smile at the Athosian over her shoulder, “which is why I let him add Lorne’s team to the trip.”

“If you are unsure, Elizabeth...”

“I want to go,” she said stopping her and pausing to pull her new top over her head. “I would like to know what it’s like to be on a first visit and I need to do that before it’s too late,” she indicated her slightly raised pregnant belly. “I always thought I’d have plenty of time to be on a first visit.”

Teyla smiled at her before moving close to loosen the strings that tightened across the bottom of the shirt.

“John will no doubt assign someone to follow you,” Teyla said pulling the front of Elizabeth’s shirt down over her stomach.

“I’m counting on him doing that himself,” she said with a smile and then picked up her coat. She turned and stepped out of the room as Teyla picked up her things and headed for the Gateroom.

Lorne and his men were on the other side of the gate room checking their gear when they entered. To her right, Ronon was twirling his gun and looking menacing. He had only lived in the city for a few weeks and only agreed to join John’s team so Lorne could have his own a week or so ago. She remember his first trip out, he’d said something to one of the villagers and they’d come back under fire

John appeared at the top of the main stairwell and jogged down to join them. He eyed her approvingly and she counted the second down in her head for him to say something sarcastic.

“Wow,” he started right on cue. “You could model for the Athosian Winter wear catalogue.”

“Hmm,” she hummed back, “so long as I don’t have to do the Summer Bikini wear version later.”

He raised an eyebrow at the comment and she knew he was picturing her in nothing but a bikini posing on one of the mainland beaches. He opened his mouth to comment on it but stopped abruptly, his eyes were fixed in humour over her shoulder and she heard the men across the room snigger. Turning she found Rodney ambling into the room.

It shouldn’t have shocked her that Rodney looked like the Michelin Man, the many layers of clothing puffing out his arms making it difficult for him to use the palm computer. He wobbled as he walked; suggesting he had several pairs of underwear on was well as a few pairs of pants. The laces of his boots were barely tied around what she guessed was four or five pairs of socks.

“I didn’t know Mr Stay Puffed was coming on this mission,” John said keeping his face straight despite the laughter in his voice.

“Huh?” Rodney asked finally look up from his computer. “What did you say?”

“Never mind,” he said and Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh. Rodney’s puffed up coats hood was up and she had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he was wearing earmuffs and a hat or two underneath. Rodney moved over to Ronon and picked up his backpack, he struggled with it for a minute before looking around the room then back at Ronon.

“A little help, please?”

Ronon took the pack and held it as Rodney shoved first one arm through the gap between strap and pack and then turned and attempted the other. Being vaguely helpful, Ronon held the second strap out and as Rodney jammed his arm into it Ronon let go trapping his arms out on either side of his body.

Lorne’s team degraded into fits of laughter and Elizabeth noted the group of people standing on the balcony above watching. John surprisingly kept his face blank, but she knew him too well, he was enjoying this more than anyone else.

“Shut up,” Rodney snapped.

“Okay, okay,” John said holding his hands up to silence the team behind him. “Who isn’t carrying a night pack?”

He turned to look at the group of men. Each night pack had provision for two member of a team; a sleeping bag roll donned both top and bottom of the holder. John had his clipped on with his vest and she knew she was covered for the night. Captain Lorne and Lieutenant Markham both had their own packs, leaving only Sergeant Stackhouse, who stepped forward and took the backpack from Ronon. The fourth member of Lorne’s team was currently in the infirmary and Elizabeth had to give him a moments grace as he’d be stuck here with Carson who was going to be in command of the city for the next few days.

“Dial it up,” John called the control room then stepped close to Elizabeth and said, “let’s get going before Rodney decides he’s forgotten his third pair of gloves.”

“What?” Rodney said from behind her and she laughed for a moment before pulling on her coat and hooking the buttons.

~~**~~**~~

“Can someone please explain to me what exactly we were thinking? We are heading for a glass dome in the middle of an arctic wasteland.”

This was the third time Rodney had asked this question, no one had answered him then and the chances of someone answer him now were just as low. John, ignoring him, looked over his shoulder at Elizabeth; she was walking steadily between Teyla and Stackhouse. It occurred to him that Rodney was right, of all the possible first trip missions Elizabeth could have come on, why did she pick this one?

They were eight hours into a 14 hour walk to a glass dome the size of New York. It was a lot of walking for two night’s bed and breakfast in the largest green house in the Pegasus Galaxy.

“Can I ask,” Stackhouse asked, “is there a reason we didn’t bring a puddlejumper?”

John quirked an eyebrow at Ronon a few steps to his left, it was a reasonable question; one John would like to know the answer to. Somehow he doubted he’d get one in a language he could understand.

“The planets natural elector magnetic field would have dragged it along the ground,” Elizabeth said. “That’s also why we haven’t brought any Earth based technology, it wouldn’t work properly here.”

“Ah,” Stackhouse offered, “I guess we need to keep the ‘Jumpers in one piece.”

“That would be nice.”

“Does anyone know who owns this... dome?” Lorne piped in. It was turning out like a questions hour and John started to wonder if he could ask why Elizabeth wanted to come on this particular mission in amongst the queries.

“A people called Gahani. Apparently they were on the same level of technology as the Ancients when they met, they learned a lot from each other.”

“Such as?” Ronon put in almost lazily.

Silence followed and John had to stop and turned to look at her. Elizabeth was only a few paces behind him and was forced to stop when he blocked her path.

“That’s why you wanted to come here, isn’t it?” John said noting that Teyla and Stackhouse had stopped with her. “To find out what they got from these people?”

“No,” she said, “I already know what they got from here,” she paused; waiting for the lifted eyebrow he gave her. “I want to see the original, understand why they traded with these people.”

“Keep walking,” John ordered turning just enough to look at Teyla. He waited until they were a few steps ahead for them before turning his attention back to Elizabeth. “You didn’t need to come along to find that out.”

“John...”

“No, Elizabeth, I shouldn’t have to remind you that you have a baby to look after.”

“Don’t tell me I have to think of the baby, I’m the one with the back pain who’s done less complaining in the last six hours than Rodney. The database said this place was deserted, there’s nothing here to hurt me.”

“Elizabeth, I don’t think a fourteen hour walk in the freezing cold is doing your or the baby any good.”

“I’m not cold,” she said calmly, “I feel fine other than the small pain in my lower back,” she reached out and took his hands and placed them carefully on her stomach. The thickness of her coat and pants made it impossible for him to feel the actual shape of his child, but she knew he would understand. “Besides,” she said placing her hand on his cheek, “I have you to look after me.”

John couldn’t help but smile. Despite his team being on the roster to come here, he had to admit she had a point.

“Six more hours to go,” he said,

“And two more breaks that you have planned.”

“You gonna make it?”

“I’m pregnant John, not disabled. Worry about the Michelin Man, he might pass out from exhaustion with all his layers.”

John laughed and took her hand before he carried on walking. The rest of the team had stopped up ahead and by the way some of them were avoiding looking at them, it seemed they’d seen more than John and Elizabeth had intended.

~~**~~**~~

She could ignore the sarcastic comment Rodney spat out about not knowing where they were going. She could ignore the frustration of the group, the lack of food for most of the day, the cold and even the pain in her eyes from the large amount of bright snow. But, the pain in her back, the small throbbing of one stubborn muscle at the very base of her spine, this was too much.

Elizabeth leaned back against the smooth glass of the dome, her eye fixed on Teyla who was wandering a few feet to the left looking for a way in. They’d been here for almost an hour now and there was no sign of a way in. The group had split, heading around the dome in two directions, Teyla had been told to search out in either direction from Elizabeth but to keep her in sight.

A golden glimmer caught her eye and she turned to look out over the vast span of snow. Their footprints were embedded in the white fluff but she couldn’t see anything that would give off a gold flare. Chalking it down to her imagination, Elizabeth turned back to look at Teyla only to find her out of sight. She turned the other way, no one there.

“Teyla?” she called but only silence greeted her. She pushed off from the dome and moved to her left towards where Teyla had last been.

She’d only taken a few steps when the golden glint caught her eye again and she turned sharply to catch it. In the snow, only a step away was a gold disc. Elizabeth checked either side of her for someone again, before stepping forward and picking it up. Instantly she felt a wave of heat flash through her and heard the clink of a door sliding quickly open. She turned back to the dome. One of the tall panes that made up the lower line of the dome had vanished.

“I found the way in,” she said into her radio and once again looked around for signs of Teyla.

“Where?” John asked.

“About three feet from where I was standing,” she told him.

“Okay,” John said, sounding as though he was struggling through a particularly thick patch of snow. “You two wait there, we’ll come to you.”

“I don’t know where Teyla is,” she admitted and held her breath for the reaction. He would either freak out that she was alone, or he’d freak out about where Teyla went.

“Teyla, report.”

Elizabeth jumped as someone grabbed her shoulder and swung around to face Teyla. She had to take several deep breaths before her heart stopped pumping and she could talk.

“Where were you?”

“I have not moved,” Teyla said. “I turned back to check on you and you were gone. I have been walking for several minutes to find you.”

Confused, Elizabeth looked back along the side of the dome, she’d only stood a few paces away, moved only to find out what the gold glint was and that was it. Her eyes drifted down to the snow covered ground and found only a single set of footprints and no sign that someone had been standing against the glass walls. When she looked back up at Teyla she found similar confusion on her face and a fair amount of concern.

“Colonel,” she said activating her radio. Silence followed for a moment before Elizabeth tried.

“John?”

“Yeah, you okay?”

“Confused, but I found Teyla,” she said raising an eyebrow at the Athosian as she checked her radio pack. “Actually Teyla found me, and apparently,” she paused, “I’m not where you left me.”

“I can see that?” John replied before he tapped her on the shoulder. “It was a shorter walk back to you that it was away.”

“Maybe you walked faster back because you love me so much.”

“Or, maybe you followed me because you can’t stay away.”

“Could we please not get into this lovey-dovey stuff now,” Rodney spat sounding as though he was starting to feel nauseous. “What’s that?” he asked pointing to Elizabeth’s hand.

“I found it in the snow,” she said handing it over to him. “When I picked it up, the door opened.”

“Lorne found another way in,” John said listening to the radio call. “So let’s get out of the snow.”

“Thank god,” Rodney spat and vanished into the dome.

Stepping into the dome was a very odd experience, the temperature inside was a steady and comfortable room level that had Rodney pushing down his hood and pulling off his hat and earmuffs quickly. The door closed behind Ronon and instantly the stale old air hit them as if, with the sealing of the dome, they had sucked out all things fresh.

John’s description of a giant green house didn’t seem far wrong. The trees stretched up almost as high as the top of the dome and the plants that littered the edge and between paths were overgrown and unkempt. The buildings reminded Elizabeth of a cross between the Atlantis towers and the most modern homes on earth and the similarity in their general design to that of Atlantis was startling.

They moved along the brick walkway examining the oddly shaped flowers and stopping at the occasional building to peep through a window and guess at its use. Elizabeth pulled her coat off and Ronon took it to drape it over the top of John’s pack. They had only two priorities for the rest of the day, find a place to camp and eat something hot. After that, they would be drawing straw for what they called ‘Doc sitting’ which was Markham’s version of who gets to go with Rodney and who tails her.

“Colonel,” Lorne called and Elizabeth turned to find him and the remainder of their group peering into several small buildings that surrounded a small patch of burnt ground. “Looks like a camping area, or at least a visitor’s area.”

“Seems like someone else was here since the original inhabitants, too,” Markham added examining the burned remains of a fire.

“Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard.”

Elizabeth turned to see Teyla holding open a door to one of the small houses. With a quirked brow, Elizabeth moved into the doorway and looked around. The room was cosy, warm and well decorated. She moved in and opened a door to find a bedroom, the bed was covered in a fir throw and the table just inside the door was dust free and surrounded by three cushioned chairs.

Dinner consisted of soup, thankfully fresh that morning that Teyla had made and brought in large quantities. The smell of it made Elizabeth’s mouth water impatiently for its flavour. She sat leaning against John as they sipped the hot beverage her coat left over one of the chairs in their selected bedroom. It was a great relief to be off her feet for a while, the walk here, although littered with breaks was long and tiring and she longed to curl up in any bed or on any surface and sleep.

There was still four more hours till the sun set and despite the fact that they had all day tomorrow to explore, both Rodney and John were eager to get going. John pulled her to her feet and they started off in one direction while Rodney and Lorne headed in another. The rest of the team were left to clear up and get some rest for the night watch, something John was for the first time exempt from participating in; much to Rodney’s annoyance.

They walked for an hour before they came to a power station on the north side of the city. The breaker switch inside had been triggered making Elizabeth wonder how the dome had managed to keep the air as fresh as it was and the temperature so mild.

Checking the connections, John pushed Elizabeth a step back before flipping the switch. Every house in eye sight lit up, their rooms aglow with electricity and the lamps that lined the paths flickered into life. It reminded her of the piers of Atlantis and she would bet anything that in the dead of night it would seem just like they were in the city; only with snow instead of water surrounding them.

~~**~~**~~

Ronon prowled the opening between the houses, Lorne to his left and Sheppard and Weir to his right. Each of the occupied buildings had the shutters closed to block out the extra lighting of the area. The fire in the middle that Teyla had built was slowly dying out and their scattered items ready for the next morning were pushed against the edges of the buildings.

He turned and moved along the back of Lorne’s building towards the stream they had crossed on their way in and paused. The thick path that had once been set up for the water’s travel was now overgrown with weeds and water plants. The bubbling water rushed passed them on their way under the bridge; the sound was just as soothing to him as the waves that hit the edge of the great city of Atlantis.

Something, however, didn’t seem right. A shiver ran down his spine and he turned back to look over the buildings occupied by his companions. There was nothing there; there was nothing anywhere and his uneasy feeling that something was wrong on this planet seemed misplaced. Everyone had long since left, thousands of years ago, and all that they had left behind was plant life and technology.

He scanned the area again before turning and walking along the river down the side of Markham’s hut. There was nothing to guard against, but he would still continue to do his job and keep watch over everyone as someone would do for him the next morning.

Behind him, a lone figure moved easily across the clearing and stepped unnoticed into one of the huts. The glowing light of a candle in the middle of the room caught her attention for a moment’s awe before she moved silently and lightly into the bedroom.

The dark room made it difficult to properly see the couple curled together on the bed. On the side nearest the door was the man, laying on his side facing away from her, the other side of the bed held his partner and the figure rounded the bed and dropped to her knees to see her better. One pale hand came up and her long thin fingers drifted over the pink skin of the visitor.

As if she’d felt a chill the sleeping woman shifted back against her lover and his hand shifted to her hip. The covers had moved and if their watcher had looked she could have clearly seen the outline of their growing child. She dared not touch her there and her fingers returned to run lightly over the stranger’s lips and back up her cheek to her eyes.

Elizabeth shifted again and took a deep breath as she slowly opened her eyes and let them drift shut again before snapping them open. She looked around the room, empty, as it had been a few hours ago when she’d settled onto the comfortable bed with John. She was imagining things, her mind playing tricks on her to punish her for being in a strange bedroom on an abandoned world. But she could have sworn she’d seen someone there in front of her.

She sighed and tucked her hand under the pillow before closing her eyes again. She listened to the silence for a while, wondering if someone or something was there, until she drifted off into her dreams.

The man’s hand had slipped down from the stranger’s hip to rest over the raise of her stomach and it sickened her, the intimacy she’d never known, the blessing of life she’d never experience again. The anger began to boil in the pit of her stomach, she hadn’t noticed it before, hadn’t seen enough of the unknown woman to discover that she bared the evil of the planet.

Fingers digging into the soft and unusual material they had laid on the bed she quickly reached out and drew a line with her nail across the pretty face of the newcomer.

Ronon turned quickly and ran the short distance back to the middle of the camping square. He didn’t stop to acknowledge that several of the others were leaving their own huts but carried on straight through the door and into the bedroom of John Sheppard.

“There was someone here,” Elizabeth muttered over and over as John pulled his t-shirt off and pressed it against her cheek. Ronon could see the blood seeping from the long thin wound; it had dripped down onto her night shirt and left a red stain in the pale green.

“Get me a med pack,” John demanded and before Ronon could turn, Markham appeared with the box and moved around to perch on the edge of the bed near Elizabeth. He had to struggle with her, her hands gripping tightly to his wrists as he attempted to clean the cut and she continued to repeat that someone had been there.

Ronon moved to let Teyla into the room and watched as John moved to sit behind Elizabeth and they both attempted to calm her down. Whatever nightmare she’d been having it had been brutally frightening, enough, he thought, for her to cut her own skin. His eyes drifted back to her hands, still wrapped around Markham’s wrists and he frowned, her nails where short, barley past the ends of her fingers and not nearly sharp enough to cut skin.

Sharply he turned and stepped back out into the square, Lorne and the others were milling around, none of them as daring as Markham had been to enter the room. He could still hear Elizabeth, although muffled by the walls, and knew those out here had no idea what was happening.

“What’s wrong?” Lorne asked rubbing at his eyes.

“Get your things,” Ronon said. “Something attacked Weir.”

John sat still on the bed, his right leg dangling off Elizabeth’s side of the bed, the other stretched straight down the length of the mattress. Elizabeth occupied the space between, her body turned so her legs draped over his left leg. Her arms were wrapped around his waist and she held tight with her cut cheek against his shoulder and her face at the crook of his neck. She was trembling slightly but made no sound and neither of them had spoken since she stopped repeating that someone else had been in their room.

It hadn’t escaped John’s notice that despite not hesitating to appear with the medical pack, Markham had been quick to leave and he made a mental note to thank the man later. John knew though, that eventually he’d have to ask her what she’d seen.

He tightened his grip around her shoulders as Teyla stepped back into the room with a mug of hot tea. It never stopped amazing him that she could make the beverage so quickly and in any situation.

“Elizabeth,” Teyla said softly and John felt her hand rest on Elizabeth arm at his side. Hesitating only for a minute Elizabeth released him and tucked her left arm against his stomach so she could use both hands to take the drink. “Lorne and Stackhouse are in the square, the others have spread out to search the area.”

“Thanks,” he said, “you going to join them?”

“If you are sure you would not like me to stay,” she offered. John shook his hand and Teyla gave them a smile before moving from the room.

John watched Elizabeth for a moment, uncharacteristically vulnerable in his arms, as she sipped the hot drink. He had never been able to find the right words to tell her how much he loved her and instead had taken to showing her with moments like this where he would refuse to leave her and just hold her close. His actions and the odd trinkets he brought back from other worlds were the best he could do.

Every time though, he had to tell her but right now, it didn’t seem appropriate. This wasn’t like Elizabeth, something had spooked her and he couldn’t risk that saying something simple like ‘I love you,’ wouldn’t do more damage than good.

From the day he met her, he’d found it hard not to watch her certain times. When she was changing, for example; it wasn’t that he got, for that brief moment, to see her body, but the small, unmistakable habits she had, like taking her bra off under the cover of her t-shirt. It had fascinated him the first time he’d seen her do it and she’d explained that she’d always been shy about her breasts. That had only fed his curiosity as the times they’d made love she’d shown no shame in bringing his hands to them.

Her pregnancy had been unexpected and the day she’d told him she was pregnant had reminded him harshly of a conversation he’d had with Carson over a year ago. They had only been in Atlantis a few weeks and a trip back to Teyla’s homeworld had landed Elizabeth unconscious and in the infirmary for a day. In that time, Carson and Lorne had found out about their relationship and John had been given an abrupt lesson about how ineffective condoms where at stopping 100% of unwanted pregnancies. It made him smile when he thought about how none of them had known back then that he and Elizabeth had been married before leaving Earth.

Releasing Elizabeth shoulder, John brought his hand down to rest on her stomach and he waited. Any day now, he’d been told, any day now he’d be able to feel the baby move. Elizabeth had already pointed out sever times when she’d felt a fluttering, but even she had been unsure if it was the baby’s movements or her still slightly unsettled stomach.

“I haven’t felt it move since I was getting ready with Teyla,” she said.

“Maybe it was lucky enough to sleep the whole way here,” he added and grinned down at her. He waited again, still not moving his hand from the baby, but this time he waited to see if she’d start the conversation they had to have, or if he had to prompt her to tell him what she saw.

“When I was a child,” she whispered and he had to move his hand to take the cup as her hand started to shake, “my best friend used to tell me her house was haunted. I never believed it, always thought she was making it up, she’d always been good with stories and I’d always watched movies and heard stories and never got scared.”

She paused and John’s brow creased, he had to wonder if there was a point to this little story.

“Until I stayed there for her birthday slumber party. I got up in the night to go to the bathroom and on my way back to bed,” she took a shuddering breath and her hands wrapped back around him, “I saw a woman standing at the end of the hall. She just stood there and watched me. I thought she was my friend’s grandmother or something so I politely said goodnight and went back to bed.

“I found out the next morning while talking to her mother,” she audibly swallowed, “that her grandmother had died three years earlier. I didn’t go back to her house after that and couldn’t sleep for a month.”

“Elizabeth...”

“I saw a woman, John. She was crouched by the bed watching me. But when I looked again, she was gone,” Elizabeth pulled back to look at him. “I know she was there, I saw her for a split second when I felt the pain in my cheek and then she was just gone. She was just gone.”

John wrapped his arm back around her shoulder and pulled her back against his chest. He couldn’t work out what was going on, a ghost? A sprit or more like a demon with the way it attacked Elizabeth. It still didn’t fit right, John had always believed in ghosts, but they hadn’t seen or heard anything strange since they’d got here. Someone else was here and they were playing a horrible joke on them.

He shook his head and sighed, whatever was going on, he had a bigger and more taxing problem to deal with right now and that was getting Elizabeth to go back to sleep.

~~**~~**~~

The sunlight blazing in through the glass roof didn’t seem to lighten her mood. John had spent the better part of the night trying to talk her back to sleep, but she couldn’t do it. Eventually he had fallen asleep while she paced the room. Now, she was sat by the fire, her breakfast remains on the bench beside her and Teyla sitting on the bench to her right. Lorne and his team were scanning the area spread out to see if they can find some evidence that someone else was here.

Behind Teyla, John was stood talking to Ronon and Rodney, they were stood in such a way that she knew they only had to look a little to the side to see her and it was driving her crazy. She stood up and Teyla’s eyes followed curiously. She raised her hand to her left cheek and a stab of pain reminded her of her sleepless night. She started pacing, walking between two of the huts on the other side of the fire from her first team. As she turned at one end, she caught John watching her none too subtly and turned her back to him as he turned away.

Elizabeth let her eyes scan the area, she could see Lorne off to the left; it looked as though he was taking a report from one of his men. The space next to him was filled and blocked with trees and tall plants that spanned all the way around to the next hut. A clutter behind her made her jump and she swung around just as Teyla apologised for dropping her plate.

When she turned back, her eyes landed on a small boy, standing in between two trees. He smiled at her, knowing she had spotted him, then turned and walked away. Elizabeth didn’t glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching her, she just moved from her spot and closer to the trees. She passed between them and spotted the boy pulling up a single flower from the edge of the path across the way; he stood up and moved away taking a quick glance over his shoulder at her.

“Hey,” she called and glanced back over her own shoulder. She should go back for the others, but if she did that, she wouldn’t be able to find the boy again. “Wait,” she called and had to walk quickly along the path to find him. She turned at the corner and stopped dead. He was there standing facing her only a step or two away.

“Aceus,” he said pointing to himself. Elizabeth dropped down to her knees where she stood and reached out for him, he took a step back and she retracted her had just a little to point at him.

“Aceus?” she repeated and he nodded. “Hello Aceus, my names Elizabeth. Are you here alone?”

“No,” Aceus said, “The bad woman is here too. She doesn’t like people.”

“Where are your parents?” Elizabeth asked, looking around for a moment half hoping to see other people and not this ‘bad woman’.

“Through there,” he said pointing to the overgrown bush to his left. Elizabeth turned her head to see what he was pointing too and when she looked back, he was gone.

Her heart rate sped up, she hadn’t heard him walk away, hadn’t heard any rustling leaves as he left, he’d just vanished. Swallowing through the lump in her throat, Elizabeth got up and carefully parted the shrub on her right. She took a step out on the other side and found herself standing on the edge of a giant pit. It must have spanned a good 200 feet from where she stood, the stale old air she’d smelt when they stepped into the dome intensified sharply and made her head spin with nausea.

She couldn’t see the bottom of the pit, but only a few feet below the rim, were thousands of skeletons.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” John shouting pulling her around to face him. “After last night, the last thing I expected you to do was go wandering off alone, what were you thinking, Elizabeth?”

“Sheppard,” Ronon’s interruption wasn’t going to be enough. She knew he was angry at her right now and his whole focus was on her.

“I followed a boy,” she started.

“There’s no one else here, there hasn’t been for thousands of years.”

“Sheppard,” Ronon tried again.

“There was a boy, I stood through there,” she said indicating back the way she’d come, “and talked to him. His name was Aceus.”

“John.”

“What?” He snapped finally turning his attention to something other than her. His eyes drifted over the pit and his shifted a little before placing his hand on her hip. “What the hell?”

“I hope this is not what happened to these people,” Teyla said.

“I’d be more interested in who did this,” Rodney said, “these... bones have been here a lot longer than that fire patch where we’re camping.”

“You’re suggesting the ancestors did this?”

Elizabeth turned away at that thought, she couldn’t look down at one skeleton clinging to another as if they were a married couple and ignore that someone had lined these people up and shot them. It was a scary thought that Rodney had a point; the ancient database said they had left their planet only a year before the attack of the Wraith had forced them to abandon Atlantis. It was also playing on her mind that the Gahani’s disappearance and their sudden uptake of certain technology was almost exactly the same time frame. Had the people they had strived to learn so much about actually killed a whole race for technology?

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” she said pushing back through the bush as Lorne stepped through.

She crossed the path and dropped down to her knees by the river and took a few steadying breaths. The hand on her back made her jump but she didn’t need to turn around to know John had followed her.

“It can’t be a coincidence,” she said accepting the bottle of water he held out for her. “It can’t be; they got some of their technology here at the same time these people disappeared?”

“I don’t think the Ancients were mass murderers,” he said matter-of-factly. “Maybe it was the Wraith,” Elizabeth turned to look at him with a raised brow. He knew better than she did that the Wraith wouldn’t leave skeletons and they would have destroyed or taken all the technology instead of leaving it behind. “Yeah, didn’t think you’d buy that.”

“Hey,” Rodney said excitedly stopping a few yards from them, “you gotta come see this, there’s something in the middle.”

John helped Elizabeth back to her feet and they moved back to the edge of the pit. As Rodney had told them, there was something in the middle of the pit that flashed a few times then went dead for a minute before it started again.

“What is it?” She asked turning to Stackhouse who was now on her right.

“Not sure,” he said handing her his binoculars.

Looking through the lenses at the device she watched it blink on a few times before moving a few steps to the side. She had to lower the binoculars to move around her team and walked a few paces down around the edge stopping between Lorne and Ronon, who had already moved further around the edge.

She brought them back to her eyes and found the device again in time to see it flash its sequence and then turn red. She half expected it to explode and she watched it wondering if it would or if it controlled something else.

A tingling around her left ankle made her look down and she caught a brief flash of a wicked grin before her foot was yanked out from under her and she barely had time to turn to grab the edge before she was pulled into the pit. Ronon’s was quick and she was extremely thankful for his speed when he managed to seize her arm and tug her back towards the edge.

She could feel the cold fingers wrapped around her ankle attempting to pull her off the edge and she tried to look over her shoulder as Lorne took hold of her other arm. The woman who had hold of her was the same one she’d seen in the night, the one no one believed was there. Whoever she was, she was stronger than both Evan Lorne and Ronon Dex put together.

Feeling as though she was splitting in half on the wrong end of a tug of war, she looked down to see a small pile of bones curled along the edge of pit, her stomach sank when she spotted a chain around his neck, a chain she’d seen on Aceus barely half an hour before. He was another ghost, another trapped person on this horrible planet and she wondered for a moment if he’d led her here on purpose.

Elizabeth let out a scream as sharp nailed ripped theskin around her ankle and she managed to kick out with the other food and made contact with something solid. The hands released her and she flew back to the side of the pit and hit the wall.

A pain shot through her stomach the instant she’d hit the side and she took a sharp gasp of air and screamed. As Ronon dragged her up over the edge she felt John’s arms wrap around her and he cradled her across his lap. She squeezed her eyes closed as someone pressed cold fingers against her bared stomach. Moaning in pain she tried to curl up, but hands on her legs and John’s arms around her shoulders held her down; ‘now is definitely not the time for a medical emergency’ she thought dropping her head to John’s shoulder as darkness engulfed her.

“We’re fourteen hours from the gate, on foot,” John said pacing the bedroom. “This can’t be happening,” he said dropping down into the sofa. “I mean something had her,” he said getting up to pace again and pausing in front of Ronon who stood in the doorway. “Someone actually had her and was pulling,” he motioned the pulling, “her off the edge. You saw that right?”

“Yes,” Ronon said simply.

John turned back to the bed. Elizabeth was laying flat on her back, her head resting on the pillows. Teyla was on her knees at Elizabeth side carefully massaging a cream of some sort into Elizabeth’s stomach. He turned away and then back again as Teyla paused.

“What?” He said afraid she was going to tell him something horrible.

“I believe your baby is fine,” she said with a smile.

“You’re sure? What makes you so sure?”

“It moved,” Teyla told him. John moved quickly, crossing the space between him and his wife and carefully resting his hand at the base of her stomach. He studied her, she was still out cold but she looked as though she was peacefully resting. Her stomach rose and fell under his hand with every breath she took and as the flutter crossed his palm he felt his heart soar out the open window.

“John?”

His eyes flicked up to her face and he smiled. Out the corner of his eye he saw Teyla move off the bed as he readjusted his position to lie next to Elizabeth.

“You okay?” he asked placing his hand back on her stomach.

“Yeah,” she said with a small nod. “The baby?”

“It’s moving,” he said just as the flutter passed over his hand again.

“You can feel it?” She asked and he nodded. Up until this point, he hadn’t felt a thing from it, she’d told him several times that she’d felt something but was never sure what it was. For all she knew it could be the nausea she’d had for the last four months. “When did it start?”

“Just now. Teyla felt it first,” he said, “she had this herbal stuff that she said sinks into your skin to help with healing; she was... being a lot gentler than I could have been.”

Silence fell between them and John used the time to tuck his arm around her shoulder and pull her close. He loved these moments, just lying with her like this. He wished he wasn’t doing it on a strangle planet in a haunted dome with a ghost who wanted to hurt her.

“I wanna go home John,” she said. “I’d rather be out there in the cold heading back, than spend more time here with that ghost.”

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll get the others to pack up our gear and we’ll take our time heading back. We can stop for longer in those caves we found,” he paused, hesitating in fear of leaving her alone. “I’ll be right back,” he said eventually and pried his hands away and quickly left the hut.

Out in the square Lorne and Teyla were checking their supplies and Ronon was collecting things from the other huts. He watched for a brief moment before moving over to Lorne who was checking their weapons supply while Markham rolled up a sleeping bag.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“We’re packing up, sir,” Lorne said. “Figured neither of you would want to stay after what happened, we don’t. And we think Doctor Weir should get checked out as soon as possible.”

“See, you don’t need me to give you orders, you practically read my mind.”

“Sir,” Markham said stopping him as he turned back to the hut. “I’ll be in for the sleeping bag in a bit.”

When everything was packed and everyone back in their winter wear they moved carefully back towards the door. Rodney fiddled with the golden disc Elizabeth had found on their way in wandering aloud if it had some other purpose or was just the key to the door. John kept Elizabeth close, her bandaged ankle was going to make the trip back a little slower, but he knew that if it became too painful for her, he or Ronon could carry her until they could find a place to stop.

When they reached the door out of the dome, however, they stopped and stared in horror at the blizzard raining down outside. Instinctively John pulled Elizabeth against him, knowing the thought of staying here was going to be less pleasant for her than it was for him. For the first time, what Lorne had said earlier seemed more urgent. Elizabeth needed to see Carson to make sure everything was fine with the baby, but it didn’t look like they were going anywhere for a few more hours at least.

“Okay,” he said eventually licking his lips to buy a moment’s thought.

“That’s just wonderful,” Rodney said. “We’re trapped with a ghost who wants to kill us.”

“Calm down,” John said hoping to stop Rodney from realising that so far their not-so-friendly neighbourhood ghost had only attacked one person; Elizabeth. “We’ll set up camp here and when it stops, we’ll start back for Atlantis.”

“Are you insane?” Rodney spat. “There’s a thing out there...”

“Rodney, shut up.”

“...who only a few hours ago was intent on dragging Elizabeth into a pit of skeletons...”

“I’m warning you Rodney.”

“The night before, I shouldn’t need to remind you...”

“Shut up!”

“...it paid her a visit in the night and cut a line through her left cheek. If that doesn’t scream...”

John pulled his gun up and aimed it directly at the scientist. Around him, Lorne, Stackhouse, Markham and Teyla aimed their weapons at him and Elizabeth grabbed his arm.

“I said, shut up,” he said punching each word out so Rodney couldn’t miss them. “I’m well aware of what happened last night and a few hours ago at the pit so don’t go lecturing me about how much of a bad idea it would be to stay here,” he swallowed unsure about what he wanted to say next. “And in case you haven’t noticed, that thing isn’t intent on hurting anyone except Elizabeth.”

“Wait,” Ronon said sudden, “no offence, but why her?”

“She was the only person sharing a room last night?” Rodney said after a moment’s silence.

“No,” Lorne said, “that’s not true,” John turned to look at him in confusion. “There are only four huts around the square; we didn’t want to split up so we paired up. I was sleeping on the sofa in Teyla’s room, Markham and Stackhouse had the other hut.”

“Well it’s definitely not that she’s a woman, or that thing would have attacked Teyla, too,” Stackhouse pointed out.

Silence followed again and John turned to study Elizabeth and compare her for the first time to Teyla. He could only come up with one horrifying difference that a ghost would be able to see.

“She’s pregnant,” he said feeling his throat close over the last words. “You’re creating life,” he added, “and she can’t have that.”

“We cannot stay here,” Rodney put in, his fear showing on his face through the gap in his thick winter jacket.

“What do you think we should do Rodney? Take Elizabeth, pregnant and injured out into that? We wouldn’t make to the first cave how far do you think she’d get?”

“John?”

John turned to look at Elizabeth; she was staring past Ronon at a spot in front of a wall a few yards away. He examined the spot before turning back to her.

“What?”

“The boys back,” she said and everyone around her turned their guns to the spot.

“Are you crazy? You can’t shot a ghost; you need rock salt or something stupid like that.”

“Aceus hasn’t hurt me,” Elizabeth said turning John’s attention back to her.

“Yet! Let’s not forget he led you to the pit.”

“I have a question,” Markham said interrupting that debate before it started. “Why is it that only Doctor Weir can see this boy?”

Even Elizabeth had to quirk her brow at this question.

~~**~~**~~

By dinnertime they had established a new camp. Reluctant to separate from the rest of the group, John had suggested a camping spot they could all share and two people on patrol if they had to stay another night. John sat against the dome’s glass wall with Elizabeth between his legs, her back pressed against his chest as she leaned back and dropped her head back to his shoulder.

They watched Ronon and Rodney across the way arguing over the last chocolate bar while Teyla and Stackhouse sorted out dinner. Lorne and Markham wondered the area keeping an eye on everyone and a look out for a ghost they couldn’t see. After they had arrived at the edge, of the dome and Elizabeth had spotted the boy again Rodney dropping his gun had distracted them and when she’d looked again Aceus had gone.

John knew her eyes were closed now, her face turned to his neck and he knew it was to avoid seeing either of the ghosts. She’d already told him she felt crazy being the only one who could see them, he’d tried to tell her she wasn’t nuts but she hadn’t believed him.

He looped his fingers with hers and brought them up against her stomach. He knew as time went on, he would find it more and more difficult not to touch her there – it was his child growing inside her and he’d be damned if he was going to miss any moves or kicks it made. All he had to do was get her out of here safely and the storm outside didn’t seem to be letting up anytime in the next few hours. At this point it would be better to wait until morning anyway; to be out in the cold overnight would just be stupid.

They had gone most of the day without their ghost showing up, apart from the boy, and for some reason, it made John uneasy. A dreaded feeling that something big was going to happen scared the life out of him and unconsciously he looked around for his gun.

“Anyone know anything about spirits?”

“I know they taste good,” Rodney said sarcastically as Elizabeth shifted to get comfortable.

“I mean the ghost type, Rodney.”

“They’re usually spirits with something they need to do. Vengeful ones usually want revenge for their death etcetera,” Stackhouse said and John stared at him in shock. “If we’re sure this woman is after Doctor Weir because she’s pregnant then chances are she had a baby that was taken from her or lost one while she was pregnant.”

“Or she was killed in the first trimester,” Markham added.”

“Yes, that’s a good one,” Stackhouse said then caught the look John was giving him. “Sorry.”

“How do we... kill ‘em?” John asked.

“Their already dead,” Rodney spat. “You should be concentrating on how to keep them away from us... Elizabeth.”

“Salt,” Stackhouse said, “Rodney wasn’t wrong earlier when he said rock salt, it doesn’t kill them, but it’s been said that salt is like a cleanser to the soul. Rock salt would repel them and apparently if you draw a circle of salt around yourself the spirit can’t cross it.”

“How do you know all this?” Elizabeth asked.

“My dad used to watch all those shows with demon hunters and such. Our bookshelves were full of supernatural religious books and the like; it was the only thing you could read in our house... apart from my mother’s romance novels.”

“That’s disturbing,” Lorne said. “Just promise me you didn’t read the romance novels.”

“No!” Stackhouse said. “The only way I know of to kill them is to burn their bones; after you cover them in salt.”

“So all me need is five thousand tons of salt,” Rodney said sarcastically.

“Do we not have salt in the food packs?” Teyla offered.

“Those won’t be enough,” John explained, “not even to draw a circle around Elizabeth’s feet.”

“It would have to be shoulder width to keep her protected.”

“Or extra wide to cover my stomach,” Elizabeth put in, “and then just be thankful I’m not nine months along,” she gave John’s fingers a squeeze against her belly.

“Err,” Lorne said, “I have salt,” he said and John smiled as everyone turned to him.

“You have salt?” Ronon asked. “You carry extra salt in case of ghosts?”

“I don’t carry it in case we get attacked by ghosts,” he said, “but those salt packets are useless, so I carry a pot.”

John had to think for a while, he couldn’t seriously be considering it but there had to be salt somewhere, enough to burn all the bodies in the pit with. But to split up and search would mean leaving Elizabeth vulnerable. Maybe they didn’t need to find salt to burn the skeletons, just encase Elizabeth in a salt circle until they could leave.

“No sense in not doing what we came for,” John said.

“What? Are you drugged? We can’t walk around with a killer ghost on the loose?”

“She won’t hurt you, Rodney. You draw a circle around Elizabeth and me and you go explore while we wait out the storm.”

“No,” Elizabeth said.

“No?” John asked looking at her in shock.

“I want to know what that device was. It was there in the middle for a reason and it turned red before I was attacked.”

“You’re not going. You and I are staying here surrounded by salt in hopes that those books Stackhouse read were right.”

“Doesn’t have to be you, sir,” Lorne said somewhat tentatively. “I could stay with Doctor Weir, or even Doctor McKay could stay.”

“Rodney’s not staying alone with her,” John spat.

“Hey,” Rodney protested.

“And if that ghost tried to pull her out of the circle, would you be able to keep hold of her?”

“Point taken.”

“I will stay,” Teyla offered and a debate broke out between them for who would stay in the salt circle. The shrill whistle that Elizabeth let out brought an abrupt silence to the group and John suddenly realised she had moved away from him a little.

“If I’m going to be stuck in a circle that we only half believe will work, then I’m gonna want the strongest person with me to make sure I don’t get dragged of and eaten alive,” she said. “And that would be Ronon.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him and John had to give her a hurt look before nodding in agreement. Elizabeth was right after all, Ronon had been able to keep hold of her to start with when the spirit had attacked her. He looked to Ronon and the Satedan nodded in agreement.

“Draw the salt circle,” John said turning to Stackhouse as Lorne dug though his bag for the tin.

“Don’t break the circle,” Stackhouse said twenty minutes later, he walked the edge of the ring of white powder checking it for cracks. “Any gaps you make will let the spirit in and that’s not what you want to do.”

“I hope this works or I’m gonna feel like an idiot for a long time after this,” Elizabeth said sitting with her feet tucked under her inside the ring. Ronon grinned and John knew he was thinking the same thing.

“You sure about this?” John asked her.

“Feeling like an idiot? Yes.”

“That’s not what I meant, Elizabeth.”

“I know,” she said with a cheeky smile. “And yes, I’m sure about this. Now go find out what that thing is.”

“Scream if you need us,” John said and feeling just as cheeky, he saluted before giving Ronon a warning look and turned to follow the rest of the team. He couldn’t help looking back over his shoulder as he stepped behind the wall and out of sight.

~~**~~**~~

Elizabeth looked up the tall figure standing just slightly behind her. He looked around the area and then down at her before once again scanning the location. Stackhouse had drawn a big enough circle for them both to lie down in with their sleeping bags and store all their supplies. He had finished by placing the salt pot just in Elizabeth’s reach.

“I don’t know why I’m looking,” Ronon said and she looked back up at him. “I can’t see them if they show up.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Elizabeth spat back. “I don’t want to see them, or feel them.”

“On Sateda, people who believed in ghosts were sent to hospital for the mentally ill. My father used to tell me he saw my mother all the time, but he never told anyone else.”

“I’ve only ever seen one ghost before I came here. An old woman in my friend’s house in the middle of the night; at the time, I didn’t even realise she was a ghost.”

“You ever tell anyone that?”

“Not quite,” she said, “I asked my friend’s mom the next morning if anyone else lived in the house, but there was only her and her daughter.”

“That’s when you realised it was a ghost?”

“Yeah.”

“You would have been strapped to a bed in seconds if you were Satedan.”

“I would also be dead now,” she said. “Sorry. That was stup...” she stopped. A few paces ahead of them stood a small boy, his cloths slightly ragged and the gold chain around his neck gleaming in the artificial light. “Aceus,” she breathed and he smiled at her.

“Where?” Ronon said. She reached out, keeping her hand inside the circle and pointed to the boy. Ronon crouched beside her and rested his hand on her shoulder.

“What’s this?” Aceus asked stepping close to them.

“Salt,” Elizabeth said feeling stupid talking to something Ronon couldn’t see and probably couldn’t hear either. Then a thought occurred to her, Aceus was the best and safest way to test their protection. “Can you step inside the circle?” she asked him and knew Ronon was watching her.

Aceus stepped forward stopping on the border of the powder and he looked carefully down at it. She could see his face flick between wonder and fear and knew he was considering that stuff would hurt him. He reached out, his hand crossing the white line and his fingers vanished followed quickly by his hand. He pulled his arm back and his digits reappeared.

“Why did you do this?” he asked.

“To stop the bad woman from attacking me,” she told him. “Do you know her name?” she asked the boy.

“Eleana,” he said, “I used to play with her daughter, Martima. She disappeared the day the visitors came.”

“Who were the visitors?”

“They called themselves the Garansu, told us they would protect us from evil.”

“Did they take Martima?”

“Nobody knew,” he said, “lots of children went missing when they came.”

“Did the Garansu kill you?”

“No,” Aceus said. “They filled the pit and then left.”

Elizabeth’s brow creased, he had been alive when their visitors had killed everyone and left. He’d been the last survivor. She couldn’t think of how painful it must have been to stand on the edge of the pit and see so many dead bodies.

“They left you behind?”

“I hide,” he said sitting down on the other side of the salt circle. “They didn’t know I was there and when they were gone I looked for my parents in the pit.”

Elizabeth suddenly pushed back against Ronon, a sudden urge for contact and comfort. His hand tightened on her shoulder in warning and slight reassurance and he shifted to sit closer to her.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

“I saw a boy, while Eleana was trying to drag me into the pit,” she said not speaking specifically to Ronon or Aceus. “He was curled up at the edge, by a couple, he wore the same chain,” she indicated a chain around a person’s neck.

“That was me,” Aceus admitted and Elizabeth took in a sharp breath. “I looked for others for days,” he told her picking at the threads on his top. “When I was too hungry, I went back to the pit and laid down with them.”

Elizabeth swallowed as she leaned back against Ronon. The image of this poor boy lying down with his parents in the middle of the death pit ready to die was a painful thought. She felt the tear slip down her injured cheek and reached up to brush it away.

“When I woke up, everything was different and Eleana was standing over me. Told me there were people trying to steal our things and she wanted me to distract them while she killed them.”

“Did you help her?” Elizabeth asked feeling her throat tighten.

“No, I hid again, but I heard them scream, just like I heard my parents scream.”

~~**~~**~~

John stood on the edge of the pit and studied the vast expanse between him and the small device perched on top of the bone pile. It wouldn’t be an easy trip to the middle and back and the last thing he wanted to do was crush someone’s remains.

“Any volunteers?”

“I will go,” Teyla said unhooking her P90, “I am the lightest; I will not damage the remains. If we cannot free their spirits then we should preserve their bones undamaged.”

John took her gun and Lorne helped her down into the pit. He told her to be careful before she moved away from the edge and watched as she measured each step before she took them. He had to resort to his binoculars the closer she came to the middle and he watched as she stopped by the device and studied it for a moment.

John fixed his gaze on it, the blue lights flicked on did their sequence then stopped. ‘It turned red before I was attacked,’ Elizabeth had said and John moved a few steps to the side to keep an eye on the object. He didn’t dare take his eyes off it, the last thing he needed was for a ghost to attack Teyla.

The lights flickered on again as Teyla picked up the device and turned back to them. It was then that Rodney tapped him on the shoulder and made him jump.

“Jesus Christ, Rodney, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Markham and Stackhouse found something you might be interested in.”

“Unless it’s a massive hill of salt, I’m not moving until Teyla gets back,” he said looking back through the binoculars at his team mate. She was halfway back by now seemingly placing her feet in the same places she’d used to get to the centre. The device in her hand still flickering its blue pattern.

“It’s a giant hill of salt,” Rodney said and John turned to look at him again. He turned, giving Lorne a pat on the shoulder and followed Rodney around the edge of the pit.

They met up with Markham and Stackhouse only a few yards from the edge and John eyed the building behind them with interest.

“I’m not seeing a salt hill,” he said disapprovingly.

“That’s because it’s in the building, sir,” Stackhouse said. “That over there is a meat storage warehouse, and this,” he said indicating the smooth structure behind him; “is a salt silo.”

John raised his eyebrow at them and followed them to the door. Stepping inside he was a little surprised to find himself in what felt a lot like the Atlantis gate room, without the control room overhead, it was more like he was standing in the control room and the tangy smell was an intensified version of the Atlantis Sea. He stepped to a railing that ran along the walkway he was on looked down into a deep chasm filled with salt.

“Great,” John said with a smile, “now all we need is a quick and easy way to put all the salt from in there, over those bones. Then find a person sized match and box to light it on and throw it in. Now if either you can pull that off, I’ll personally collect whatever Athosian beverage you like from the mainland and trade something of my own for it while I’m there.”

He turned and left the building and headed quickly back to the pit. By the time he had reached it, Teyla had climbed out and stood dusting off the lower half of her pants while Lorne examined the device. John stopped in front of them and watched the blue light show and was just about to say something when the thing turned red.

Quickly they both grabbed Teyla and waited. Nothing happened and it took John a moment to remember Elizabeth’s words again. ‘It turned red before I was attacked.’ He turned quickly and ran along the edge and through the bush heading back their camp. Teyla was hot on his heels and he knew she’d realised exactly what that meant. Elizabeth was in danger, especially if that salt circle didn’t work.

“I told you not to visit them.”

Elizabeth swung around and to her feet at the unexpected voice and Ronon quickly moved to stand behind her. On the other side of the circle stood Eleana, her face showed her displeasure at Aceus as she ignored Elizabeth and Ronon.

“I wanted to say goodbye,” he said.

“I told you to stay away from them,” Eleana said moving around the circle and Elizabeth followed her. “When I tell you to do something you useless boy, I expect you to do it.”

“Hey,” Elizabeth said and Eleana turned and her face twisted into a grotesque shape. Elizabeth retreated back a step and found herself against Ronon.

“I’ve only been here for a minute,” Aceus said and Eleana turned and struck him across the face.

Instantly Elizabeth stepped forward, another step and she was stopped as Ronon wrapped an arm around her shoulder, she felt her back hit his chest and realised he was just doing his job. She couldn’t leave the circle, to do so would give Eleana a chance to hurt her.

“Eleana,” Elizabeth said unhooking Ronon’s arm from her shoulders. Eleana rounded on her for a moment before turning angrily back to Aceus, but he’d already gone. Prowling, Eleana moved to the edge of the circle and started to walk its border from side to side. “Why me?” Elizabeth asked.

“You took my baby,” Eleana said.

“I didn’t take Martima,” Elizabeth said carefully.

“You took my baby,” Eleana said, then turned her anger into a playful grin. “So I took all of your friends.”

“What?” Elizabeth said. “What do you mean you took all my friends?”

“You and the ape behind you are all that’s left,” she said with a grin, “didn’t you hear the screaming?”

Elizabeth stood shocked for a moment watching the evil grin of the woman to determine if she was telling any form of truth. A shiver ran down her spine and she moved forward to the edge of the circle. Before she could take a step over the line Ronon seized her arms and pulled her back.

“No,” she cried, “let me go.”

“Think about this,” he said, “she wants to hurt you, Weir; she’s trying to lure you out because she can’t get in.”

“John,” she pleaded fighting against his strong hands and she knew they would bruise her, but she couldn’t find the will to care. She wanted to find John, know that he was alright. “Ronon, please.”

“No,” he said and she let out a cry of panic.

“Don’t go,” Aceus said and Elizabeth turned her head to look at him, “she’s lying, you’re friends are coming back to help you.”

Elizabeth stopped struggling against Ronon, but he didn’t let her go. She flicked between Aceus, who hadn’t hurt her or lied to her so far, and Eleana who’d only tried to hurt her. Eleana was telling her he was lying and reached out to hit Aceus again when John and Teyla rounded the wall.

“John,” she cried relieved he was alive and there.

“You okay?” he said looking around the area as Elizabeth stood up straight and Ronon relaxed his grip.

She wanted to hold him, make 100% sure he was really alive and really standing there in front of her, but Ronon’s hands were still on her arms and she knew they were serving as a reminder that she needed to stay in the circle. She could only nod in answer to his question.

“Where is she?”

“No,” Eleana said, moving angrily towards John, she reached him before Elizabeth could react, but the nail of one long finger passed through him instead of cutting him.

Eleana turned on Teyla, her hands like claws attacking her face but touching nothing. John was still aiming his gun, trying to work out what Elizabeth was looking at. He turned to Teyla and grabbed her arm and pulled her to the circle. When he stepped inside Elizabeth’s arms moved on their own to wrap around him and she pull him tight to her body feeling his gun trapped between them and pressing against her stomach.

Eleana stared at them, her breasts heaving in rage as she tried to breathe. She charged at them but was forced to stop at the edge of the salt circle, her arm across the ring had vanished to the elbow and it seemed to annoy her ever more than she couldn’t reach them. She tried to kick at the salt, but it didn’t shift for her foot.

Lorne stepped carefully around the corner of the wall, his gun raised, his eyes scanning the area and the device tucked into his pocket. It didn’t quite fit, it half hung out and Elizabeth could see the red light still fixed on.

“You got the device?” Ronon said. “Any idea what it is?” he asked and Eleana looked over her shoulder as she slowly pulled her arm out of the circle.

“Where did you get that?” Eleana screeched as she approached the Major. She tried to snatch it from him as he crossed the space towards the circle.

“Everyone okay?” he asked.

“Evan, give me the device,” Elizabeth said hurriedly. He looked confused for a minute. “She’s trying to take it out of your pocket,” she added.

“Destroy it,” Aceus said and Elizabeth swung around to look at him. She felt suddenly like piggy in the middle. Out the corner of her eye Eleana turned her eyes on the boy who stood on the opposite side of the ring from her.

“Why, why destroy it, Aceus?”

“It’s keeping us here,” he said, “she told me the Garansu put it here to stop us leaving.”

With a clatter the device dropped from Lorne’s pocket and Elizabeth watched as it shifted in small moves away from them. Eleana was gaining strength to use on the device, eventually she’d be able to pick it up and take it somewhere they wouldn’t be able to find it. John and Teyla moved out of the circle to help Lorne, Eleana was keeping it a few steps ahead of them. Elizabeth was out the other side before Ronon could stop her and she crouched in front of Aceus.

“If we destroy it, you’ll be able to go where?” she asked.

“To Lobec, where my parents are waiting for me.”

“Aceus,” she said placing her hands on each of his arms and feeling his cold skin under her fingers. “Are you sure it will work?”

“Yes. The last people who found it turned it off and I got to see the lights of Lobec, but that’s when Eleana killed them and I was forced back here.”

Elizabeth turned quick and crossed the circle, her foot brushed the salt on the other side as she stepped past it and she called across the space to her team.

“Destroy the device, John.”

In a flash of movement, Lorne managed to grab the device in Elizabeth’s distraction and he threw it with all his strength towards them. She heard Ronon draw his pistol and ducked as he brought it up and fired. Eleana screamed as the object shattered into pieces and as Elizabeth felt one of them hit her arm she heard Aceus whisper close to her ear.

“Thank you.”

She raised her head and smiled at him as he faded from view; he was free. Elizabeth turned and looked at John and that’s when realised it hadn’t completely worked. Standing, seething just behind John was Eleana, her eyes were fixed on Elizabeth and she started forward her shoulder brushed John and he shifted with the pressure.

Realising, perhaps a little too late that she was outside the salt circle, Elizabeth stood up and quickly took a step back and into the ring. But Eleana didn’t stop at the edge and she didn’t vanish as she passed the line.

“No,” she breathed as Eleana stopped right in front of her and a cold chill flushed through Elizabeth’s body.

“Give me my baby,” Eleana’s voice was deep and cold and she breathed a barely audible ‘now’ before her hand shot to Elizabeth’s stomach.

Elizabeth let out a scream of pain and caught sight of John running towards her just as Ronon’s arms wrapped around her and tugged her out of Eleana’s reach and off the ground.

“This way,” Teyla called and Ronon carried her at a run as he followed Teyla. She would have felt shaken with his speed, but he had pulled her close, protecting her baby more than the rest of her and it made her relax a little. She glanced over his shoulder, John and Lorne were following them but there was no sign of Eleana. Ronon suddenly changed direction and as John and Lorne took a different path Elizabeth spotted Eleana for a moment before she vanished.

Elizabeth freed her arms and used them to stead herself more in Ronon’s grip as they ran the edge of the pit and she closed her eyes as she spotted Eleana moving through the bone field towards them.

“She’s coming,” Elizabeth breathed.

“I know,” Ronon said and she saw him turn his head, “I can see her; have done since I shot that thing.”

He turned sharply again and Elizabeth turned in his arms to see where they were and found John a few paces ahead of them holding a door open. They passed him and Ronon turned into the build and ran along the walkway.

“Everyone on the salt, NOW!” John screamed from behind her and she spotted Stackhouse as he vaulted over the railing. Ronon took a set of stairs down behind Teyla and stepped almost calmly onto the salt pile. He put Elizabeth down and seconds later she felt John’s arms around her waist. “You okay?” he asked urgently checking her for injuries. She nodded.

~~**~~**~~

John watched her, stalking along the walkway on the other side of the silo, her features twisted into a hideously contorted expression. The members of their team stood lined up against the wall under one of the walkways and near the stairs. Teyla and Stackhouse were reeling off ideas on how to get the salt out of the silo. Rodney had his face tilted down to see the ancient device he’d brought and Lorne and Markham moved carefully around the salt looking for obvious openings or panels they could use.

John had spent the first few minutes of this more recent nightmare checking Elizabeth was okay before he demanded to know if they had found a way to move the salt yet. The next half an hour had been spent in an argument, during which Rodney had demanded to know what was going on.

“I can’t believe you got us stuck on a salt mountain,” Rodney spat again and John practically growled at him.

“It worked Rodney,” Elizabeth said and before she could explain more Rodney rounded on her.

“Oh, I’m so seeing that,” he spat. “We are trapped on this salt pile while slimmer roams around above us looking for its prey. I don’t see how blowing that thing up did any good.”

“Aceus is free,” Elizabeth said calmly returning her head to John’s shoulder where it had previously been. Hoping Rodney would have enough sense to drop the topic, John started to rub at her back.

“Oh goodie,” Rodney said and John paused to shoot him a menacing look. “So why hasn’t she gone? Huh, tell me that, why is queen bitch of the underworld still lurking around here, Elizabeth?”

“I don’t know,” she said and John pulled her close. The fact that she hadn’t shouted at Rodney for being an ass told him she was tired and probably hungry. It was now late and their sleeping bags and supplies where back at the door to the dome, they were pretty much screwed here.

“Oh well that makes me feel so much better.”

“That’s enough Rodney. You’ve made your point.”

“No, I don’t think I have. We are stuck here now, not even one of us lower gene people can leave the silo to go get our things. We’re now all targets of the mad ghost.”

Elizabeth turned her head on his shoulder looking away from Rodney and John felt her take several deep breaths. He continued to rub at her back, realising that he’d stopped as Rodney started babbling.

“This isn’t Elizabeth’s fault,” John said calmly.

“I think you’re wrong there, if she’d just stayed in Atlantis the wicked ghost of the East wouldn’t be circling us like a hawk.”

“No, Rodney,” John spat releasing Elizabeth and advancing on the scientist, “If Elizabeth had stayed in Atlantis we’d all be dead by now, it’s by sheer luck that we’re not and why is that?” He said the last part quickly to cut off Rodney’s protest, “It’s because that witch of a ghost has exhausted all her time focusing on Elizabeth instead of killing us.”

“Stop it,” Teyla shouted making both John and Rodney jump. “Arguing about this will not get us out of this mess,” she said calmly. “And neither will hurting Elizabeth,” she added to Rodney indicating Elizabeth who had moved away from the group and was on her knees in the salt with her back to them.

John gave Rodney a stern look before he moved over to her and knelt down in front of her. As soon as he was down she reached her hand out and placed it on his knee, he could see the tears rolling down her cheeks and knew she felt responsible for what was happening here. Things were going from bad to worse and it was hard to tell if she was more afraid of putting everyone in danger or for her baby.

“It’s not your fault,” John said.

“Aceus told me about the group that came here before,” she took a deep breath. “Eleana killed them, without hesitating, she just killed them. They were here to raid the technology; it’s what they did from the start.”

“That’s why she didn’t kill you to start with,” John said realising where she was going with this conversation. “We hadn’t done anything drastic to offend her; she wasn’t crazy enough to kill you because you were pregnant.”

“We’ve upset her balance of power,” she said, “made sure people could see her and took away the only other person she’d spent all this time with.”

“Yeah, but on the bright side,” John said running his hand up her arm and back to her wrist. “We can all see where she is now, so we can avoid her.”

Elizabeth gave him a weak smile and reached up wipe away her tears. John leaned in and kissed her on the cheek before smiling cheekily at her.

“Just think, when this is all over you can punish Rodney for being an idiot and talking about you like that,” he grinned at her little laugh and looked back over her shoulder at the team.

Teyla was watching them, sat with Stackhouse in the white sand, he was looking anywhere else. She turned back and started a conversation with him as John’s eyes drifted to Markham and Lorne who stood off examining something on the wall a few feet away. Rodney had his back to the wall and his eyes on the ancient device again and John quickly scanned the area for Ronon.

“Where’s Ronon?” he asked quietly. Elizabeth twisted around in the salt to sit on his knee as she eyed the team and the area around them for the Satedan. He was nowhere in sight and that made John worry just a little more. He glanced quickly up at Eleana who was still pacing back and forth by the door they had come in through; she hadn’t seemed to notice one of their team was missing.

“We can trap her,” Elizabeth said.

“What?” John said turning back to her, her eyes were fixed on a spot on the other side of the room. He followed her gaze to the end of the walkway and raised his eyebrows; he hadn’t seen the gap in the walkway before.

“If someone can get close enough to drop salt by the door, they can cover the walkway in salt while someone else draws a line along the edge of the building outside and trap her over there.”

It didn’t answer the question of where Ronon had gone, but it was a great idea; if they could manage it. They just needed to find things to fill with Salt and hope that Eleana’s addiction to Elizabeth would keep her this side of the buildings outer wall.

“Go sit with Teyla against the wall were you can see Eleana,” he said helping her to her feet.

He followed her back before passing her and grabbing Rodney harshly by the arm and dragging him off to join Markham and Lorne. Stackhouse joined them a moment later and John glanced back to see Elizabeth and Teyla engrossed in a conversation against the outside wall.

He looked around at Eleana again and then spotted Ronon. He was stood leaning against the wall below the ghost, and next to him, was a small open hatch. Ronon gave him a small wave as John smiled.

“What can we fill with salt?” he said turning back to the group.

“Excuse me?” Rodney asked looking at him as if he’d gone nuts.

“Look, we need to buy time in order to get salt out to that pit. So we need to trap Eleana in the corner of the walkway. Which means we need to carry salt up there and out through the hatch over there,” he pointed to Ronon who gave the team a little wave.

It suddenly occurred to John that they didn’t need to find something on them; Ronon was standing by a hatch that their ghost obviously didn’t know about. He reached up and triggered his radio.

“Ronon,” he said and licked his lips only to screw his face up at the salt taste. “Care to go back to camp for our bags?” Ronon nodded and John realised he was staying out of Eleana’s radar. “Don’t bring them too far in, or she’ll know we’ve found a way out.”

By the time Ronon returned with their packs, they had arranged how they would trap the ghost. John had gone back to fill Teyla and Elizabeth in and tell them they need to be the distraction. The team had then spread out along the wall taking up places strategically to get the job done. John waited by the hatch for Ronon and helped him back in with their bags. They quickly and quietly empted the contents of them and refilled the bags with salt. When they were all full, John activated his radio and told everyone else they were ready.

On cue, Elizabeth stepped into view and took one tentative step onto the steps up to the walkway. Ronon instantly vanished out the hatch and the look of fear that crossed Elizabeth’s face told him Eleana had moved in her direction. The steps Elizabeth was on lowered over the salt so the ghost woman couldn’t move down them to Elizabeth, they stood a few feet from the corner they planned to trap her in and John swallowed hoping that Elizabeth wouldn’t lose her nerve and step back.

He watched her take another step up as Teyla joined him at the hatch, took a bag and vanished through it. Eleana was now standing in John’s view; her eyes fixed on Elizabeth her mouth was moving as she repeated the whisper ‘give me my baby.’

Ronon reappeared and took the third bag from him giving up the one he’d just emptied. He nodded as he passed John to indicate that Eleana wouldn’t be able to leave through the door and in a few minutes time he knew she wouldn’t be able to leave through any wall along to the walkway. Assuming of cause Teyla had enough salt to reach far enough around the building.

John turned back to check on Elizabeth and was amazed to find that between her and Eleana stood a small boy. No older than nine years old he was half way down the stairs and smiling kindly at her. It wasn’t possible, how could this kid stand on the stairs over the salt? Elizabeth took another step towards him and the boy reached out as if to stop her, he looked worried all of a sudden and Eleana tensed. Aceus, he suddenly realised, was trying to stop Elizabeth from going near Eleana to talk, Eleana was quite happy for the woman to step out of the salt’s reach and was annoyed at the kid. Teyla stepped back in and examined the line around to the end of the walkway.

“I double checked my steps,” she said, “I believe I have more than covered the end of the walkway.”

“Thanks,” John said and handed her the last bag. Teyla moved one way and John headed for Elizabeth. As he reached the stairs Aceus vanished. “Elizabeth,” he said, “what are you doing?”

“I just want to talk to her,” she said playing their game as if he’d only just noticed she had gone. Out the corner of his eye he saw Teyla sprint quietly and gracefully along the walkway to the door. She passed it and as she rounded into Elizabeth’s view Eleana turned her head to see her. Instantly Teyla stopped and drew a line along the walkway and started filling in the line towards the ghost.

Another flare of anger flushed over Eleana’s face and she turned to find the end of the walkway and Ronon standing on the other side of the gap dusting the path with more salt. John watched her turn back to the wall and stop. She was completely trapped.

~~**~~**~~

It was only a matter of time now, before Eleana found a way out and the team gathered quickly in the middle of the salt mound. They exchanged looks, silently asking for idea; she opened her mouth to ask a question and stopped.

“Elizabeth,” Aceus said. He was standing on one of the walkways and everyone turned their guns on him.

“No,” she said shortly and she passed them and took the stairs up to Aceus. John followed her closely. She reached the top and turned to walk towards the boy. “I thought you were free, you went to Lobec.”

“I did,” he said looking over her shoulder at John, “I came back to help you,” she smiled at him. “You need to move the preserve into the pit, right?” he asked and Elizabeth and John both nodded. “Come with me,” he said.

They followed him out though the door next to him and over a walkway that passed high between the two buildings. Aceus vanished through the closed door and Elizabeth didn’t hesitate to open it and step inside.

“My father used to work these cranes,” Aceus explained, moving around the edge of the next room and through a door into what Elizabeth recognised easily as a control room. “This is the only preserve silo in Gahani, so the cranes reach out over the other food stations, you can position it over the pit and pour the powder over it.”

“Any chance you know how to operate them?” John asked and Aceus smiled.

“Over here,” he said leading John to the panel, “you press this button to turn on the spy screen,” he said and John touched the button. Elizabeth watched the screen and raised an eyebrow at the perfectly clear view across the dome.

“Wow,” she said, “bird’s eye view.”

“This one controls the view finder,” he said and John fiddled with it until he found the end of the crane and its relation to the pit. “This one extends the cane’s arm and that other one moves it from side to side.”

“Can I move the crane while the salts pouring out?” John asked looking down at Aceus.

“I don’t know,” he said truthfully, “I only saw it work once or twice and they usually stop over the building and just pour what is required.”

“Okay,” John said, then turned away from the view screen to face Elizabeth. “Go back and get someone to draw a circle big enough for everyone to stay in,” he said.

“John,” she protested.

“If Eleana gets free, I don’t want you vulnerable,” he said. “Get everyone inside a circle, I’ll fill the pit and then all we have to do is figure out how to burn it.”

“McKay already has,” Ronon said stepping into the room.

“Oh well, there we go then. How?”

“He thinks the material on the bodies will burn enough. They’re already setting up salt spots around the edge so they can all light from different angles and then move back without leaving the salt space.”

“And you?” John asked. “Came to draw you in,” he said holding up a backpack full of salt. “But I don’t know how to use these,” he said holding up a box of matches, so I need Weir with me.”

Elizabeth nodded and John took the pack from Ronon and started to draw a salt line around the room making sure it overlapped at points where he had to draw over something. Elizabeth watched him for a moment before following Ronon out and back down onto the salt pile. She didn’t even glance up as Eleana screamed at her to give back her baby and listed off a string of horrible names. Instead she let Ronon help her out the hatch and they walked to the nearest circle of salt.

She made sure to step over the line this time and they followed the path of salt down, through a gap in the plants and to the edge of the pit, where the line cut across the very edge. She looked around; Teyla stood an equal distance to one side as Markham did on her other. Across the way Rodney and Lorne were drawing the last of their salt lines.

Elizabeth yawned as she looked up, the cane was slowly extending overhead and lights appeared on it as it grew in length. Figuring this would take a while, she sat down on the ground and waited as John positioned the crane at the furthest point of the pit from him and began to pour the salt. It took hours to pour all the salt into the pit and John made sure to cover the whole area and every body in the pile.

When he was finally out of salt he made sure they knew it and told them he was going back to the salt silo. Elizabeth climbed to her feet as did those around her and she took the match box from Ronon and lit the first one. Teyla and Markham on each side waited, watching her as she reached her hand out over the edge of the pit and released the first match.

The heat reached him as he stepped back into the silo’s main room and he looked around. There was a thin layer of salt left at the bottom of the deep chasm and the stairs that ran around the edge and down to the bottom looked thin and unstable. Eleana stood watching him as he walked around the room to the door; he turned at the entrance and smiled at her.

“Just so you know,” he said fighting off the need to lick his lips, “that’s my baby you tried to take, and you’re about to pay for hurting and scaring my wife,” he turned to the door and then back to Eleana. “And we only came to look around at the technology, not take it.”

“She will be dead before you can leave,” Eleana said, “she will not get away for what she has done.”

“She hasn’t done anything wrong,” he spat then quietly added, “except marry me. But that’s just her mom’s opinion. Besides,” he said, “what can you do from your bad girl corner?”

Eleana screamed in frustration at him as he vanished out the door, he wondered if it was a good idea to tease a ghost who was trapped, but as he caught sight of the burning flames he couldn’t bring himself to care. He stepped back in through the door and leaned against the wall.

“Back so soon?” she asked.

“Yeah, just wanted to wave you off,” he said, “cause if your bones are in that pit, they’re about to go up in flames.”

He could see the anger split across her face and turned as something yanked on his clothes. Aceus was standing beside him on the walkway and the boy looked tentatively at Eleana.

“She’s in there,” he said, “she was at the top; she was the last person the Garansu killed. Elizabeth set fire to her first.”

John looked back around at Eleana as she took a step backwards, her chin dropped to her chest she looked down at something on the floor. John looked down to her feet and saw the sparks of flames starting to build up, the fire’s temperature was almost perfect to destroy her and it would only be a matter of minutes before she was gone for good.

“No,” Eleana muttered as she tried to back away from the fire, only to reach the railing that confined her to the walkway. Unable to back up anymore she glared up at John and then let out a piercing scream as she was engulfed by the flames.

He pulled his gun up, his finger lingering over the trigger and he looked around the room, he was unguarded where he stood and if that was a trick she could reappear at any moment. Aceus had vanished along with her and John spared a moment to thank him and hope he was okay.

“She is trapped,” Aceus said suddenly and John whipped around to face him. “She is trapped in Donac, the underworld, she will not be back,” he offered a grin. “The smoke will not reach the area you stayed in the first night and the storm will have gone by morning,” he said then dropped his head in hesitation.

“Thank you,” John said, “but there’s something else, isn’t there?” Aceus nodded.

“My sovereign has offered you all the information in our memory banks, I can show someone to that, but he has requested that you take the locker with you.”

“The locker?”

“The gold ringlet Elizabeth found, the one that let you in.”

“Why do you want us to take it with us?” John asked just a little confused.

“So no one else can entered our homes, take our belongings.”

John nodded and smiled down at Aceus before he left the silo. Aceus followed him and John stopped near the pit between Markham and Elizabeth and activated his radio.

“It’s safe to leave the salt,” he said, Eleana has left the building,” he watched Elizabeth as she completely relaxed down to the ground and flattened out on her back between the salt lines. “Rodney,” he said as he moved over and knelt down beside her, “make your way back around to us, Aceus wants to show you how to get the data storage thingy. Everyone else, let’s start gather our things and go back to the first camp.”

He smiled down at Elizabeth, her feet crossed out towards the blazing fire and her right arm draped across her eyes while her right hand rested on her stomach. He placed his hand over hers on her stomach and watched as she peeked at him from under her arm.

“You wanna stay here or come back to the camp for food and a comfortable bed?” he asked.

“If I had the energy,” she said glancing to her right and smiling at Aceus, who still stood waiting for Rodney, “I’d go back to the camp.”

“It’s okay beautiful,” he said leaning down to kiss her, “you wait here and I’ll carry you back in a little while.”

He turned back as Rodney stopped several paces away and stared at Aceus. John tapped the boy on the shoulder as he passed and moved to stop in front of the scientist.

“Rodney, Aceus, Aceus, Rodney,” he said pointing between the two. “Aceus has been sent back to give us the data thingy,” he said forgetting exactly what it was they were being offered. If you go with him, he’ll show you where it is and how we can take it with us.”

“You want me to go somewhere alone with a ghost?”

“Yeah,” John said, “Casper’s a friendly ghost,” he said with a smile. “He just saved your ass showing us where the crane was and how to work it.”

“And again, why can’t someone go with me?”

“Everyone’s busy setting up the camp again.”

“And what are you doing?” Rodney asked and all it took was for John to look over his shoulder at Elizabeth for Rodney to realise. “Right,” he said, “right,” he repeated again still unsure. “Friendly ghost?” he asked looking down at Aceus.

“I promise I won’t hurt you,” Aceus offered.

“Well that was reassuring,” Rodney said sarcastically.

“Rodney, just go get the data thing and get back to camp. And don’t lose that gold disk Elizabeth found, we’re taking that back too.”

“You make it sound like I lose thing a lot.”

“You do,” John said, “your brain, your temper, you manners, your respect for Elizabeth. One of these days I’m gonna have to shoot you for the last one,” he said offhandedly as he turned back to his wife. “Now get going.”

He moved back over to Elizabeth and crouched beside her again, he moved her arm from over her face to find her eyes closed. Thinking she’d fallen asleep he carefully tucked his arms under her and lifted her off the ground. He got comfortable before moving out of the salt markings and towards the camp.

“I can’t wait to leave this place,” she said softly against his neck. “It’s going to be a long walk back though.”

“Yeah,” he said, “if you get too tired, let me or Ronon carry you until we can find somewhere to stop for a break, okay?”

She nodded and pressed a kiss to his throat as he turned into the camp. The team had a fire going in the middle again and Teyla and Lorne were busy setting up the evening meal. Elizabeth opened her eyes as he sat her down on the bench and just as he was about to get up and go find a cover or blanket for her, Stackhouse stepped out of their hut with one hooked over his arm.

“Thanks,” John said taking the throw and draping it around her shoulders.

They ate in silence, no one bothered with added salt to their meal, they’d clearly had enough of the stuff to last them a few hundred years and as they headed to bed for the night, Ronon joked about Lorne carrying a pot of the stuff for ghost protection from now on.

Elizabeth pulled close to him as they settled in for the night, her face tucked against his neck and her arms wrapped tightly around him. He could feel the stress in her posture and knew she was considering that it wasn’t completely over. He had been having the same thoughts since he watched Eleana burn back in the silo. He’d mentally timed the distance to the nearest salt patch. He also had to question his own order for everyone to get some sleep instead of putting someone on guard duty. If he was so unsure, how could he give such an order?

Aceus’ smile floated back to the surface of his memory and he understood now why Elizabeth had managed to trust him so easily. He had appeared to help them, he hadn’t hurt any of them; he’d helped them.

It still took him a little while to fall asleep, Elizabeth’s slow steady breathing against his neck wasn’t as soothing as it usually was. He was worried about the baby, unchecked for almost a full day now. John slipped his hand between them, his knuckles pressing against her firm stomach and he felt the flutter of movement against them.

He relaxed; one more day and she’d be sitting in the infirmary back home with Carson telling them they were lucky. He’d have to remember to give her a speech about going on missions when they were back in their room, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.

~~**~~**~~

As expected, the walk back to the Stargate took twice as long to complete. Elizabeth’s bad ankle caused a few problems along the way and each time they stopped John had taken off the bandage to check it wasn’t becoming infected. Several times along the way Ronon or he had ended up carrying her when it became too painful to walk and at one point they had stopped so she could lean against a rock while he rubbed at the sore muscle in her back.

He kept her close the whole way back, which Elizabeth couldn’t bring herself to mind. It was comforting that he was worried about her now, back in the cold. Leaving a bad few days behind them didn’t completely put them at ease, only when they were back on Atlantis and checked by Carson would they finally give in. Elizabeth had told them before they left the dome that everyone was on down time for the next week and John had quirked a brow at her in question until she’d agreed to stick to that week herself.

Halfway back, they stopped in a cave for a rest. Rodney had set his watch alarm for an hour and almost instantly fallen asleep on the cold floor. Elizabeth found herself curled against John’s side, his arm over her shoulder to drop down her back and the others in varying states of rest. The radio buzzed in her ear bringing her sharply out of her dozing state just as Rodney’s alarm went off and she reached up to activate the ear piece.

“This is Weir,” she said unable to stifle a yawn.

“Elizabeth,” Carson’s voice came back. “Thank god. It’s been an hour since you were due back.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” John said. “We have to take longer to get back. Elizabeth has some nasty scratches on her ankle.”

“We’re about half way back Carson, should be there in about ten hours,” she said and heard the other groan at the long estimation. They had set out exactly when they should have and after fifteen hours they had only reached the halfway point. Carson promised another contact for 10 hours time and the connection was cut.

“I really want to get back before that,” Rodney snapped, “I want hot food and my bed.”

“Wanna ride piggyback?” John asked her as he pulled her to her feet, “we can move faster with you off that ankle.”

“It will also put less pressure on your back,” Teyla put in and John had to smile at her.

“You can’t carry me,” Elizabeth said eyeing the backpack he had just hoisted back on.

“I can,” Ronon said. “What’s piggyback?”

~~**~~**~~

John stepped into his room and found Elizabeth stretched out on the bed on her side. They’d been back in the city for a little over twelve hours. Carson had checked over all of them and paid careful attention, due to John’s fussing, to their baby. They’d slept for a good eight hours after that and he had only left to go deal with an argument that broken out between two of the marines. He dropped down on the bed on his back and Elizabeth’s hand slide quickly up his chest under his t-shirt.

“Are you alive?” she asked.

“Just barely,” he replied and turned his head to place a kiss on her nose as her hand slipped down his chest and she cupped him between the legs. Naturally his length stirred under her caress and he took a sharp breath of air and let it out in a slow groan.

“You feel alive to me,” she said coyly.

“Are you alive?” he asked in return.

“I’m too alive,” she said sitting up so she could start to undo his pants. “In fact,” she said flicking the button open. “I’m more alive now, that I have been for the last four months. I think my body’s making up for lost time,” she told him with a coy look. For four month’s she’d pushed him away when he’d tried to arouse her, she’d either felt too ill or too tired to have sex. Eventually he’d given up and just settled for waiting until she was ready.

He kicked off his boots as she dragged his pants and boxers down his legs and he had to kick them off as she turned and straddled his thighs. She leaned down and kissed her way up his chest as she moved his shirt off and with that deposited on the floor and him now fully naked, she sat across his hips, her bare core in contact with his now almost fully erect length and her thigh length night dress brushing against his stomach and thighs.

He watched her for a moment, content, despite his arousal, to just let her stay there if she wanted. He ran his hands up her thighs and under her dressed until he could flatten his hands out over her stomach. Elizabeth shifted her hips and he arched a brow at how wet she was on his length. He massaged her belly gently for a moment before he moved his hands up to her breasts and she stopped him as he wrapped his palms over her nipples.

“Too sensitive?” he asked and she nodded. He dropped his hands back down and started to tug her dress up, but again she stopped him. “I wanna see you, Elizabeth,” he said, “I wanna see the whole of your beautiful body.”

She still stopped him from removing her dress and he rocked his hips up slightly to create friction and she let out a long moan and dropped her hands to his chest and leaned forwards on him.

“God, you’re too damn sexy sometimes,” he breathed and she lifted up sitting straight before rising up onto her knees and pulling the dress off. He expected her to settle back on him as she had just been, but instead, she reached down, her arm across her stomach and she positioned him so she could lower herself down on his length.

His head dropped back sharply on the pillow and let out a long breath of air as her warm, wet heat engulfed him. He was never going to get over how wonderful she felt, how right she felt like this as well as when they just laid together in bed or stole a quick kiss on the balcony.

Elizabeth rocked slowly on him, occasionally adjusting the angle of how she sat and as she leaned back, resting her hands on his knees he felt her muscles tighten on him. Even with a year of marriage behind them, John found it difficult not to come on the spot. His eyes examined every inch of her looking for something that had changed, the position, the stretch of body as she arched back, the growth of her belly that supported and protected his child.

“Four months is too long,” he breathed as his hands brushed over her stomach and settled on her hips. “Especially with the most beautiful wife in two galax...” his voice died off as she slowly eased up off him and then dropped back down. Her muscles flex and she moaned in pleasure. He began to help her, encouraging her hips off him and releasing them as she peaked to drop back down on him.

She picked up the pace, pausing occasionally to rock on him before she would return to her rhythm. He used his hands as she moved, running them along her body, over her torso, caressing her thighs and letting his thumbs tease the joint between her sex and her legs. He knew she liked that and was always rewarded with her falter and shudder.

“God, John,” she breathed picking up speed again and digging her nails into his knees. She was close and John pulled one hand away to lick is thumb before he placed it perfectly over her clit. One firm swipe and she pushed down on him, her muscles went wild around him and she groaned constantly as she came on his length.

John bit his lip, he didn’t want to come just yet; he wanted to watch her. His eyes fixed on her stretched body; he continued to rub his thumb over her clit to extend her orgasm. She bucked on him, her body trembling with the pleasure and he felt a rush of pride that he could bring out this kind of reaction in someone normally so composed.

She reached out and knocked his hand away before forcing herself back down to the hilt of his cock and she gripped him tightly before rocking a few times. It was all it took and John flattened out on the bed as he came inside her.

His hands back on her hips, John waited for her to reach over and take his arms so she could lean forward on him and drop down to his side. It took a moment before she moved and she reluctantly let him slip of her body as she moved back onto the bed. It was only as she pulled the covers over them that he realised they’d been folded to her edge of the bed.

“John,” she said still catching her breath as she settled against him. “I never want to go on a first visit to another world again.”

“Good,” he said wrapping his arm around her back to pull her closer, “because I’m not letting you go anywhere unless I’m damn sure you won’t get hurt.”

“Good,” she said and sighed against him. “I love you, John,” she breathed as she slipped off to sleep.

“I love you more than I’ll ever be able to tell you,” he told her before kissing her forehead tenderly and letting his eyes close.