“I’m telling you, your calculations are wrong,” Rodney said following the Czech scientist with a portable tablet computer in his hands. In front of them was Tipson with his gun poised and ready. Behind them two officers were pushing the metal console with the help of Katie Brown and behind them another Marine was watching their backs.
“Rodney,” Zelenka fixed his glasses out of frustration, “I assure you, they are correct.”
Rodney scoffed. “Yeah, if you were planning on making the city explode.”
Radek rolled his eyes. “What do you suggest, then, hmm?”
“Not to worry,” Rodney continued, pressing buttons on the screen. “I’ve already started correcting your mistakes. You’re welcome.”
Radek did another eye roll and muttered something in Czech before running into the back of Lieutenant Tipson. The scientist took an awkward step back and looked at the Marine. “What is it?”
Tipson cautiously peered around the corner and jerked back the moment his eyes fell upon four Xe-ne making their way towards their position. He turned and motioned the retreat gesture to the soldier at the other end of the group. The soldier nodded, only to glance around the corner and jerk back like Tipson had.
They were trapped. Four Xe-ne were closing in on either side of them. The four military personnel readied their weapons as Katie joined Radek and Rodney in the middle of the group. Rodney poured his nervousness into the algorithms on the computer screen as the soldiers closed the distance between the civilians and themselves.
Finishing the code on the screen, McKay looked up just in time to hear one of the soldiers cry out as a Xe-ne seemed to step through the man, freezing him instantly. A split second later and bullets were flying. Rodney, Radek, and Katie ducked around the console. Projectiles were flying in both directions.
“Come on! Move!” Tipson grabbed hold of the chain being used to secure the console on the trolley and started pulling it forward while continuing to shoot. The others scrambled, crouched as they were, to follow the Marine who was darting into the fray.
They rounded a corner. Tipson was out in front, followed by Radek and an officer and then Katie. McKay was lagging behind. Tipson glanced behind him, shouting. “Hurry up, Doc!”
Rodney winced. “I’m trying!” His legs felt heavy and limp and hard to move.
“What’s the matter?”
A sudden, sickening thought flooded his mind. “The pills!” he blurted out. Oh God. He had taken muscle relaxants.
Katie turned with a worried expression and ran backwards toward Rodney. Rodney’s eyes shot up. “Wait, what are you doing?”
“You need a hand,” Katie offered him a reassuring smile as she looped her arm around his and helped pull him forward.
The door to a room along the hallway opened.
“Katie!” Rodney shoved the botanist aside as a Xe-ne exited the room and stepped through him. He froze instantly – one leg up and his hands out in a position that would have looked comical in any other situation.
“Rodney!” Katie’s face twisted with shock and horror as she stared at the frozen man, but saw no signs of the aggressor. She was stunned, stuck on the ground where she had fallen, looking up at Rodney. It was only when hands grabbed her shoulders and lifted her up did she snap out of it. Zelenka had her arm in his hand and he was pulling her forward. “We need to get the weapon activated.”
****
Lorne knew it was a bad idea to separate from Teyla and Miller, but he had no choice. Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard had to know about the aliens’ secondary objective and they had to know quickly. With radio silence in place the only possible way for them to find out was to tell them directly. So Evan ordered them to get to the civilian area and add themselves to the guard in whatever capacity they could. Teyla didn’t argue, she simply nodded and turned to head in the right direction. He assumed the chance to protect her people was extremely appealing. Miller, however, hesitated and Lorne could see the concern on his face.
Evan paused at the corner and used the mirror to discreetly look around the corner and then turned it. He could guess what Miller would have said if he hadn’t just snapped at the man to get going. ‘What if they get you before you get to Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard?’ It was a reasonable possibility, but alone Evan could take more time getting around corners, move quicker along hallways and be twice as quiet.
He turned another corner and spotted a Marine laying face down about halfway down the corridor. He approached with caution and reached down to check for a pulse. It was beating away at a steady, though slightly fast pace. At least the man was alive. He pulled him over and raised a brow at how stiff he was. It was as though he’d frozen mid walk and lost balance.
Evan had seen three different kinds of attack from the aliens. Shortly after splitting up from Sheppard and Weir, he watched one alien stand in front of an Airman and spit smoke at him. The smoke passed through the Airman and he froze as though he’d been struck before crumpling to the floor, he’d checked as soon as he could to see if the man was still alive and breathed a sigh of relief that he was. Later, he watched one of the aliens walk through an unsuspecting and unseen human. It was the lack of gene in this person that Lorne hoped was the reason it happened. The simple walk through the man had turned him literally into a statue. Lorne had walked up to him after the Xe-ne moved on and found the man was not only still alive, but still breathing in his unusually stiff state.
It had only been a few minutes ago that he watched them fire an actual weapon. It seemed they did so in the inability to catch or see their victim. In this particular case it was catch and Lorne hadn’t been able to see where they shot this weapon from, but he did watch the sharp spike shoot out and strike one of the men in the back. With a stunned expression he watched the wound crystallise before it started to spread. Again Lorne had checked to see if the man was alive, but this time, he was absolutely and completely dead.
Moving away from the frozen man, Lorne returned his concentration back on reaching the weapon room. He darted around corners, using rooms to avoid being seen by passing groups of Xe-ne and stunning individual ones who were stupid enough to get separated. He stuffed them into empty rooms and stole the crystals from the panel.
When he finally stepped into the weapon room again, he found it empty save for the little girl sitting on the other side of the machine with a pack of crayons and blank patch of floor.
****
Radek barrelled into the room first, followed by Katie and then Tipson with the machine. They were the only ones to make it. The moment Tipson was in the room, he dropped the chain to the console and gave a brief nod to Major Lorne. “They’re a level down. I’ll try to buy you guys some time,” Tipson said before there could be any protest. The Marine lieutenant disappeared back out of the room.
Radek grabbed the console and dragged it as close to the machine as he possibly could. He unhooked all the chains and dropped them noisily to the floor before attempting to hoist the device up into the centre of the room. He let out a sharp huff of breath and a slight groan at the discomfort and was thankful when both Lorne and Katie moved over to help him. As they turned away to leave him to his work, the door opened. Lorne’s gun came up so fast Radek’s head spun for a second before he could focus on Tipson’s return.
“I found some stragglers,” he said, stepping aside as Chuck, Elizabeth and John stepped into the room.
“Elizabeth!” Mara screamed, darting through the middle of the weapon and straight into the woman’s arms. “It was scary waiting here alone.”
“Are we ready?” John asked, stepping up into the weapon room and looking around.
“Almost,” Radek replied. “I think.”
“Good,” John said, turning back to Elizabeth and taking the step down off the machine to stand in front of her. “You ready for this?”
“I won’t,” Elizabeth said, moving around the side of the room to the place Mara had been.
“Elizabeth,” John called before following her and noting that Lorne followed them. “You’ve seen what they can do. They killed Penny.”
“What did they do to Penny?” Lorne asked and John shot him a look.
“Some breathe on her thing.”
“She’s not dead, just... asleep, I think. The only way they kill is if they fire these sharp icicle things at you. I’ve seen two guys killed by that.”
“Wonderful,” Elizabeth said. “I needed that added to my nightmares.”
“I emptied an entire clip into one of them, and it barely faltered. As far as I know, we can’t kill them.”
“I will not risk using a weapon we know nothing about,” she said sharply.
“It doesn’t kill. It’s just a long range transporter,” Lorne put in.
“If they get in here...” John started.
“They are looking for the weapon as well as you,” Lorne interrupted.
“If they get in here, they can kill us all. There’s no other way out. Do you really want them to hurt you... or Mara?”
Elizabeth turned to face him at this. She’d been watching the girl drawing on the floor for a while and listening to their conversation. For a moment it crossed her mind that to have that breath thing on a five year old girl would not only be horrific for the child, but for the person caring for her to see. At the moment, although not completely officially, Elizabeth was that carer and she really didn’t want to see that. But Mara wasn’t even really there. She wasn’t human. She was an ascended being.
“Mara can’t get hurt, John. She’s ascended.”
“I can,” Mara said.
John watched the flicker of fear that crossed Elizabeth’s face as she watched Mara add brown curls to the person she had drawn on the grey floor.
“Who have we lost, Major?” John asked.
“I passed Hellton and Morrison with spikes in either their back or arm,” he counted them off on his fingers. “Milton, Tomin and Natal were frozen solid in their stance. And Max Beddin was only unconscious.”
“McKay said Lambert was dead, probably with the spike.” Tipson added, joining them. “Rodney got walked through and turned solid.”
“Not to mention the two others who were with Tipson to help me and whoever was with Lambert to get to Rodney,” Radek called out from under the console.
John stopped Tipson from adding his death count on after that and crouched down in front of Elizabeth. She’d dropped her head down somewhere in the middle of the list and he had a slight fear that she was crying as she fought against the need to use this weapon. When he was on her level though, he didn’t see any tears. Her brow was creased and her eyes were closed. He took her hand and waited for her to look at him.
“Mara’s told us that it won’t kill,” he said in a calm and almost too quiet voice. “We just have to trust that and we need to do this before anyone else gets killed by these things.”
“Erm,” Radek said before she could respond. “Who has the crystals?”
“I do,” Tipson said quickly and pulled the backpack off his shoulders and handed it to the scientist.
“I know you,” John continued. “You don’t want to lose the city. You don’t like writing home that you’ve lost people and you sure as hell don’t want them to hurt the Athosians or their children. I saw you with Mara when she wouldn’t go to sleep,” Elizabeth’s head dropped again and John moved closer, pressing himself against her knees. “If you won’t do this for anyone else, do it for her.”
Her eyes came back up to his and he could see a fear in them. She had a question for him and there were too many others around for her to ask it. He watched her eyes flick to the five year old girl now colouring the t-shirt of the person in red and he understood. He nodded when her eyes came back to him and she nodded back and stood up.
“Keep that door secure,” John ordered, standing up with Elizabeth and taking off his vest. He handed his gun to Lorne and his stunner to Tipson. He reached down and without hesitation, unclipped the holster around Elizabeth’s thigh and handed that to them as well before he took her hand and moved into the middle of the weapon.
“If I understand correctly,” Radek said while slipping the last connector into place and picking up Tipson’s bag, “this is Elizabeth’s console.” He gave her an apologetic look. It’s called Priloxi, which translates roughly to ‘Lure Forth’. And that one, Colonel, is Subvenio, which means “Assist’.
“I’m always here to help,” John said with a smile as Elizabeth stepped around the console and looked down at the simple design.
“This section of the city was flooded back when we arrived,” Radek continued.
“Hence the damp smell,” John said. He was trying to get a response from Elizabeth, stop her from shutting him out for the next few days like she had done when the replicator nanites had infested her. The haunted look she’d had for a few days had scared the life out of him and he didn’t ever want to see it again.
“Yes,” Radek said, slotting the yellow crystal in place and moving off to the green. “Well, that means I have no idea if this will work or not and as I have no idea how this thing functions or is put together, that will make it extremely hard to fix,” he inserted the green crystal and moved to the blue. “From what I’ve read,” he continued, placing the blue and moving to the red. “It’s designed to activate your genes as high as they will go and use them to seek out all the alien life in the city and remove them,” he placed the last crystal in the pedestal and turned to face them. “So I have no idea what to expect in how that will feel or if you will even be conscious after.”
John could hear the underlining ‘or dead’ that lingered on the man’s lips and was thankful he hadn’t actually voiced that thought.
“It also said it wouldn’t work if any other life was inside the chamber when it was activated,” Radek added before he took a step back and out of the machine. John watched Elizabeth’s eyes follow him and then flick down to Radek’s right to where Mara now had a black crayon and was furiously trying to finish her picture.
“Elizabeth,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. She nodded and took a deep breath before stepping up to the console.
John looked down at his, a button and several setting levers on one side and hand plate on the other. John pushed the button experimentally and waited to see if something would happen. When nothing did he glanced at Elizabeth and quirked a brow. With a shaking hand, she reached out and pressed the button on her console. Almost instantly the doors around them closed. The creak of it turned both Lorne and Tipson to face them with weapons at the ready and John saw Katie Brown straighten before she walked off towards Radek and Mara.
“Good luck,” Chuck said from behind him and John turned to give him a smile before the last glass panel closed in place.
John had barely a few seconds to look at everyone one last time before the panels fogged and blocked his view. A low whirring sound started and the floor beneath their feet started to vibrate slightly as though the long forgotten machine was now powering up for the first time. He turned back to Elizabeth and watched her for a second as she wiped her right palm on her pants leg and stretched her fingers out. One of her knuckles cracked as she shakily let it hover over the hand plate for a moment, then settled it down on the cool surface and she finally looked up at him.
“I love you,” he said before placing his hand on the plate on his console.
****
Ronon turned the corner to one of the civilian hide outs and froze. It wasn’t by choice and he had a moment of realisation that the other two people ahead of him and the one behind him were no longer able to take another step or raise their guns. The alien a few paces to his right had also stopped and he could see the white glow that usually accompanied a stunned beast pushing through the daze. This time however, nothing happened and Ronon watched in amusement as the Xe-ne tried again. Nothing.
A piercing sound echoed through the corridor behind him and a gust of wind that exploded with colour in front of his eyes pushed around him. He tried to close his eyes but found he had no control over his eyelids. He darted them back to the beast. He watched as the beast was pulled apart in its place and each speck of the being was pulled upwards before finally vanishing through the ceiling.
As the shriek passed, Ronon saw the colours fade with it and instead of focusing in on the corridor and the two armed men ahead of him, he found himself surrounded with darkness for a few seconds before he drifted off into a deep sleep.
****
Her heart was racing and all she could see was white. The panels she and John had been standing in front of had gone and there was no room around them. She knew John was there, though she hadn’t actually seen him. She could feel him, like she did in a half dazed state as she shifted in bed at night. To her left, a spark of red flickered to life and suddenly burst into flames. She wanted to step back, but a blue spark to her right turned her attention and she watched it hover for a second before splitting into a stream of water as though a waterfall has appeared out of thin air.
Curiously, she turned and watched a green spark develop into a small field of grass and long stemmed green-faced flowers. Then a yellow spark appeared and split into millions of little dots floating in the air and started to slowly swirl as though they were bits of corn that had been picked up by a gust of wind. She turned back to see John standing close by, watching the yellow swirl in a lazy whirlwind. The white began to fade.
The colours expanded out, turning the horrible dull, fogged screen around them into a lush landscape with a field below their feet and a waterfall in the distance and a fire flickering to one side. Elizabeth quirked a brow at it as the fire shifted in the air and formed a circle and rose to take its place as the sun above their heads. The wind picked up as the blue from the waterfall expanded and created a sky above them. It was beautiful and reminded her of a landscape painting her uncle had once done.
“Wow,” John said. “It’s like the holodeck on Star Trek.”
Elizabeth smiled and considered him for a moment as he continued to look around.
“You said you loved me,” she said, when he finally looked back at her.
“Yes, I did,” he said and licked his lips before stepping closer to her. “And I meant it,” he added, reaching up and running a finger down her cheek before he moved in and kissed her.
She let him take control, his body pressing against hers and his arms around her rested on her back. The kiss was firm and at the same time soft and it made Elizabeth feel as though every fibre of his love and being was put into it. There was no way she could stop loving this man. He made her head swim from a simple touch and a kiss like this was making every inch of her body tingle.
He’d waited six long months for her to be ready, for her to realise just what her feelings were and she had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he would wait another six if she wasn’t ready for more. But she was. She’d been ready days ago, before this started. She just hadn’t realised it then and wouldn’t have known how to go about moving on. Over the last few days as things became tense and emotions began to run high, they had taken the steps forward. Their first kiss had moved into a second and after that, standing in his room with him, she’d tried then to move. Tried to seduce him and had been doing a pretty good job of it until they were interrupted. Barring this machine working in the space of a few seconds, there was nothing to stop her now and she intended to make good use of such time.
Daringly, she slipped her hands down from his neck to the front of his jacket; it was still zipped up as it always was under a vest. She found the zipper easily and slid it down before pushing the material off his shoulders. John broke the kiss at this point and moved his lips down to trail along her shoulders.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. “I mean, we’re still in that grotty chamber and we have no idea how long this will take.”
“This or the weapon?” she asked with a grin. John pulled back and arched a brow at her before smiling his usual charming grin at her.
“I don’t want to rush this,” he said despite the look he gave her.
“Then don’t,” she said quietly and slowly untucked his shirt from his pants. “We’re in control of this room. I bet those walls won’t open until we push the button. And I’ll assume that while this lovely scenery is around, that we still have time.”
“You make a very convincing argument, Doctor,” he said, moving his lips back to her neck.
“I try my best,” she said and pushed at his shoulders to stop him. “John, I don’t want to rush us, but...” she stopped and swallowed the lump in her throat. “I want children and,” she smiled nervously, “it’s not like I have unlimited time.”
“It’s not like I carried a condom,” he said, eliciting a small laugh from her. “Standard field equipment consists of everything but that,” he said with a smile and leaned in to kiss her softly. “I want kids too. I want a little Mara, just as playful and sweet with brown curls and green eyes.”
“I’m gonna miss her,” Elizabeth admitted, her hands slipping onto his sides under his t-shirt.
“Maybe we can get her to stay and we’ll adopt her,” he offered and watched as she bit her top lip. “Or maybe we’ll just start creating our own.”
He stepped in again and kissed her before sharply tugging her shirt from her pants and edging it up her torso. When he had it high enough he splayed his fingers out over her belly and she hissed at the sudden touch of cold fingers.
“Sorry,” he whispered, moving once more to her neck. “Not like I stuff my hands in my pockets while holding a gun. You’ll have to warm them up.”
“And how would you recommend I do that?”
“I can think of a few ways,” he said, sliding his hands up under her shirt to cup her breasts. The drag of his fingers up her skin sent a shiver down her spine and tightened her nipples under the material. John hummed against her neck as he teased them and she pulled her lower lip in to stop from groaning.
When John pulled away, he lifted her shirt, forcing her hands up over her head so he could remove it completely. For some reason, she wished she’d put on better underwear, though the thought of wearing her sexiest underwear when in the middle of an alien war wasn’t that appealing. John didn’t seem bothered by her plain white bra though. He licked his lips and reached for the front clasp, but she stopped him. Placing his hands on her sides, Elizabeth unhooked the clips and separated them slowly. She learned a few boyfriends back that the first time a man saw you he didn’t want any distractions. John’s eyes were fixed on her breasts as she parted the material and pulled it from her shoulders before dropping it to the ground. She spared a second of thought that it would be soaked with the wet floor of the machine when she put it back on but was distracted when John moved in and suckled on her left nipple.
She let out a low, uncontrolled groan and gripped his shoulders tightly. As he teased, she bunched up his t-shirt, pulling it high up his back until she had no choice but to pull back from him to remove it. He moved away willingly, letting her remove the garment and then returned the task of teasing her other nipple. John bent at the knees, his hands slipping down her waist as he trailed kisses down her stomach until he was kneeling in front of her. She could feel him fumbling with her boots as he teased around her navel until he became frustrated and had to pull away to look at what he was doing.
With her boots gone, John moved to undoing her pants and she smiled as he placed a delicate kiss on her lower stomach. He pulled them down to the ground and helped her step out of them. Elizabeth’s hands vanished into his hair when he placed a kiss on her thigh and then sucked at the same spot. He repeated it on the other side, just a little higher, before switching back and again moving higher. Getting the idea, Elizabeth shifted her stance wider and tilted her hips towards his face. Her body was already reacting to his ministration and she bit her lip the closer he got.
Again, the plain white underwear didn’t bother him, or at least he didn’t show that it did. He reached the edge of the garment and slipped up to kiss her hip before kissing the other side. She was beginning to think he was going to tease her like this forever when he dipped his chin between her legs and sucked on the small, and quickly growing, wet patch of her panties. Her fingers tightened in his hair and her hips pushed forward more until she could feel the bone of his nose press sharply against her. He teased for a few seconds more before pushing back against her hands and separating them. He kissed her thigh again before looking up at her flushed face and then slowly eased the panties down over her hips and to the ground.
After she stepped out of them, his eyes began a trail up her body. He took in her legs, the patch of hair between them and moved up over her stomach to her breasts and she couldn’t fight the blush that reached her face before his eyes did. John’s hands moved from her ankles where they’d come to rest and he took her hands, now dangling at her sides.
“Come here, beautiful,” he said, pulling her down into his lap on the ground. He shifted, getting comfortable on the floor before kissing her again.
“This isn’t fair,” she said, pressing her chest against his. “I’m naked and you’re still half dressed.”
“Seems fair to me,” he teased and then groaned as she shifted her hip against his erection.
“Does that mean I get all the attention?”
John groaned again as she pushed harder against him. He leaned back, moving his feet out from underneath himself and then dropped back onto the soft grass behind him. Elizabeth followed him down and kissed him before starting her own trail down his neck. She worked slowly over his chest, flicking her tongue at his nipples and placing kisses at points around his belly button before skipping over his pants and down to his boots. Kneeling at his side, she undid them and pulled them off along with his socks, just as he had done for her. Before moving back up, she tucked her fingers up under the ankle of his pants and grazed her nails slowly up his legs until the material snagged just a little too tightly over her arm. She pulled out just as slowly and listened to the growl of protest he let out.
Elizabeth shifted up his side, placing her knees just next to his waistline and started to unbuckle his belt. She teased the button and zipper open and grinned when John lifted his hips slightly so she could remove his clothes. Instead, though, she placed another kiss on his stomach and turned to look at him.
“Rotten tease,” he said, reaching his hand down to rest on her calf.
She grinned back at him before pushing his pants down and letting his boxers go with them. His cock released with a slight slap against his stomach. She avoided looking at him directly while pulling his clothes off and then started to tease her fingers up over his legs towards his groin. She considered teasing him as he had done to her, but when she reached her goal the idea promptly vanished from her mind and she wrapped her hand tightly around his length.
John groaned and his hips lifted just slightly as she leaned in and licked the tip. His hand shifted up her leg as she wrapped her lips around his length and he paused with his hand on her thigh just below her backside. His fingers stretched out to tease her sex and she adjusted herself on her knees to give him better access. Without warning, John leaned over, grabbed her hips and pulled her over him to straddle his chest. He quickly adjusted his arms over her and leaned up to take a quick swipe at her sex with his tongue. She hummed around his cock and she heard the soft moan he let out as his head dropped back.
Elizabeth moved on, taking as much of him in as she could and using her hand to massage the rest and occasionally tease his balls. John took a moment to regain himself before he pulled her down to him and began his own little feast of her flesh. Six months of sexual build up forced them both to stop, though much to Elizabeth’s delight, John caved first and had to literally tell her to stop when he came too close to the edge. He joked about her not getting her kids if she finished him that way and then resumed his feast of her sex. His tongue was bliss, just enough pressure in the right places to bring her up quickly and when he stopped to suck her clit into his mouth she almost exploded. She knew he had that same cheeky grin whenever he pulled back.
After a few minutes though, Elizabeth crawled away from him before he could repeat his torture and she dropped down onto the surprisingly soft and dry grass that still made up their surroundings. John followed, placing kisses up her leg, over her hips and side before kissing her shoulder at the front to push her onto her back. She shifted to lay flat and accepted his kiss as he leaned over her.
“I love you,” she said, finally returning the comment he had said earlier.
He kissed her again before they both shifted naturally and comfortably into position. Elizabeth parted her legs for him and he set himself between them as he leaned close to her body with a hand around his cock. He brushed the head against her lips and Elizabeth’s arms came up to wrap around his neck. Her fingers scratched at his shoulders for a second before he repeated the motion of brushing the head of his cock through her folds to flick at her clit. She moaned loudly as he dragged back down and positioned himself at her entrance.
John kissed at her shoulder, her neck and then took her lips before he finally pushed into her warmth. Elizabeth groaned into his mouth. He refused to break the kiss, pushing against her tight tunnel for a moment before drawing back and starting again. It had been a while for him, months actually, but as far as he knew, she hadn’t slept with anyone since they were back on Earth; before they’d even met. The deeper he got, the harder Elizabeth found it to keep kissing him and eventually she turned her face away and took several deep breaths to calm herself. He felt so good and at the same, he was stretching her as though he was beyond anything she’d ever had before. Almost three years with nothing but her fingers for company was finally taking its toll, but she didn’t care. This was John, she loved him and the pain would ease. John shifted his knees as he finally hit home inside her and he turned his head to nibble at her ear for a second before he finally spoke.
“You okay?” he asked and she took a sharp intake of breath before nodding.
“God, yes,” she answered and he chuckled low in his throat.
He rocked his hips experimentally and they both groaned at the sensation. He did it again and Elizabeth wrapped her legs up around his waist. His heels dug into his backside and he adjusted his knees and sunk deeper into her warm bliss. He pulled back, ever so slowly, finding he missed the feel of her before he was even halfway out and slowly, almost as slowly as his initial thrust, pushed back in. She groaned and it sent a shiver of pleasure down his back and straight to his balls. They tightened dangerously so he pulled back again and thrust forward just a little harder and faster than the previous time.
He found the rhythm quickly, thrusting deep and slow against her, listening to her moans and pants as he wrapped his arms under her back and pulled her body flush to his. He could feel her breath on his neck, her stomach pressing against his as she took each breath and her hips rocked in counter movement to his, thrusting against him as he pushed into her. She began to falter, her breathing becoming sharp pants of air and her hips rocking out of time until she went stiff and he groaned at the pressure she placed on him as her sex contracted with her orgasm. He didn’t stop, riding her through all of it until her nails dug deep into his back and she relaxed into a beautiful pile of goo below him.
John separated himself from her, keeping them joined at the hip and looked down at her face. There was lovely glint in her eyes from the aftermath, something he’d only seen when she was excited or extremely happy about something. Her hand came up to caress his face, her delicate fingers against the two day stubble he hadn’t had time to shave. Her slow, sweet orgasm still tingled her body. John began to move again, his eyes on hers as he thrust faster and a little harder into her.
“Oh god,” she breathed, just before her eyes slid closed.
He could feel her body building up and building quicker to what promised to be a much more intense ending. He picked up the pace, thrusting faster into her and dropped his head down to suckle on her nipple. He could feel his balls tighten dangerously as though they would pop if he didn’t come soon and he hummed around the nipple as she started to tighten on his length. He had to release her nipple from fear of biting it when he heard a small mewling come from her, her hips thrust up hard against him, her arms around his neck tightened and she pulled him down against her chest as her orgasm hit hard. Again, John rode her, though he was barely holding on this time. She breathed his name and he couldn’t stop himself from thrusting hard against her hips and letting his seed loose inside her.
He collapsed, his body feeling like jelly on top of her and he listened to the race of her heart and the harsh breaths of air she took in. Several minutes passed before a low beep from the somewhere in their new environment started and he picked up his head to see the two white consoles back in the middle of the room. Or what he assumed was the middle of the room. He pulled up and slipped out of Elizabeth before helping her to sit up.
“I think we better get dressed,” he said and reached for her pants sitting on the grass nearby.
She nodded and took them from him before getting up and starting to collect her clothes. She had barely pulled her top on under John’s gaze when the environment faded and the pedestals reappeared, drawing their colour in as though they had summoned it to them. The fogged glass panels lost their colour and as Elizabeth ran a hand through her hair to straighten it, they faded back to their transparent selves.
Outside, they could see their people standing frozen. Lorne was against the side of the door, his gun pointed and a look on his face that told John something had entered his line of vision. Tipson was just outside the door with one foot raised to take a step backwards into the room. They turned, taking in Chuck, mid sit on one of the sofas around the edge. Radek was standing, watching as though he expected to see everything, and they hoped he didn’t. And Katie Brown was crouched in front of where Mara should have been, but the girl was gone. John drew Elizabeth close to him as he realised where she was looking and placed a kiss on her forehead just as everything returned to normal. He didn’t release her, keeping her close and letting her rest her head on his chest as movement began to form in the people around them. Radek blinked at them and smiled as Katie stretched herself up into a standing position.
“What happened?” Lorne asked, “I saw that Xe-ne vanish,” he added a little confused. “I watched it go to pieces and vanish.”
“You’ve only just gone in,” Tipson said. “It can’t be over already.”
John checked his watch behind Elizabeth and smiled, almost an hour had passed since they stepped in. He had glanced at the time before Elizabeth had agreed to go into the weapon in the first place. Everyone outside, possibly on the whole planet had frozen, paused in time and place while for them, nothing changed except their surroundings.
Elizabeth pulled away from him and moved over to stand by Katie. She was looking down at the ground where Mara had been drawing and she smiled at the picture. On the grey floor stood two people, one in red and black with brown curls and green eyes. The other was dressed all in black and has black spiky hair and brown eyes. On the floor between them, drawn by an adult instead of a child, was a baby basinet with a small fist poking out over the top of the side. Underneath the picture written in Ancient text were the words ‘The fifth element is life.’
“Rodney,” Zelenka fixed his glasses out of frustration, “I assure you, they are correct.”
Rodney scoffed. “Yeah, if you were planning on making the city explode.”
Radek rolled his eyes. “What do you suggest, then, hmm?”
“Not to worry,” Rodney continued, pressing buttons on the screen. “I’ve already started correcting your mistakes. You’re welcome.”
Radek did another eye roll and muttered something in Czech before running into the back of Lieutenant Tipson. The scientist took an awkward step back and looked at the Marine. “What is it?”
Tipson cautiously peered around the corner and jerked back the moment his eyes fell upon four Xe-ne making their way towards their position. He turned and motioned the retreat gesture to the soldier at the other end of the group. The soldier nodded, only to glance around the corner and jerk back like Tipson had.
They were trapped. Four Xe-ne were closing in on either side of them. The four military personnel readied their weapons as Katie joined Radek and Rodney in the middle of the group. Rodney poured his nervousness into the algorithms on the computer screen as the soldiers closed the distance between the civilians and themselves.
Finishing the code on the screen, McKay looked up just in time to hear one of the soldiers cry out as a Xe-ne seemed to step through the man, freezing him instantly. A split second later and bullets were flying. Rodney, Radek, and Katie ducked around the console. Projectiles were flying in both directions.
“Come on! Move!” Tipson grabbed hold of the chain being used to secure the console on the trolley and started pulling it forward while continuing to shoot. The others scrambled, crouched as they were, to follow the Marine who was darting into the fray.
They rounded a corner. Tipson was out in front, followed by Radek and an officer and then Katie. McKay was lagging behind. Tipson glanced behind him, shouting. “Hurry up, Doc!”
Rodney winced. “I’m trying!” His legs felt heavy and limp and hard to move.
“What’s the matter?”
A sudden, sickening thought flooded his mind. “The pills!” he blurted out. Oh God. He had taken muscle relaxants.
Katie turned with a worried expression and ran backwards toward Rodney. Rodney’s eyes shot up. “Wait, what are you doing?”
“You need a hand,” Katie offered him a reassuring smile as she looped her arm around his and helped pull him forward.
The door to a room along the hallway opened.
“Katie!” Rodney shoved the botanist aside as a Xe-ne exited the room and stepped through him. He froze instantly – one leg up and his hands out in a position that would have looked comical in any other situation.
“Rodney!” Katie’s face twisted with shock and horror as she stared at the frozen man, but saw no signs of the aggressor. She was stunned, stuck on the ground where she had fallen, looking up at Rodney. It was only when hands grabbed her shoulders and lifted her up did she snap out of it. Zelenka had her arm in his hand and he was pulling her forward. “We need to get the weapon activated.”
****
Lorne knew it was a bad idea to separate from Teyla and Miller, but he had no choice. Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard had to know about the aliens’ secondary objective and they had to know quickly. With radio silence in place the only possible way for them to find out was to tell them directly. So Evan ordered them to get to the civilian area and add themselves to the guard in whatever capacity they could. Teyla didn’t argue, she simply nodded and turned to head in the right direction. He assumed the chance to protect her people was extremely appealing. Miller, however, hesitated and Lorne could see the concern on his face.
Evan paused at the corner and used the mirror to discreetly look around the corner and then turned it. He could guess what Miller would have said if he hadn’t just snapped at the man to get going. ‘What if they get you before you get to Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard?’ It was a reasonable possibility, but alone Evan could take more time getting around corners, move quicker along hallways and be twice as quiet.
He turned another corner and spotted a Marine laying face down about halfway down the corridor. He approached with caution and reached down to check for a pulse. It was beating away at a steady, though slightly fast pace. At least the man was alive. He pulled him over and raised a brow at how stiff he was. It was as though he’d frozen mid walk and lost balance.
Evan had seen three different kinds of attack from the aliens. Shortly after splitting up from Sheppard and Weir, he watched one alien stand in front of an Airman and spit smoke at him. The smoke passed through the Airman and he froze as though he’d been struck before crumpling to the floor, he’d checked as soon as he could to see if the man was still alive and breathed a sigh of relief that he was. Later, he watched one of the aliens walk through an unsuspecting and unseen human. It was the lack of gene in this person that Lorne hoped was the reason it happened. The simple walk through the man had turned him literally into a statue. Lorne had walked up to him after the Xe-ne moved on and found the man was not only still alive, but still breathing in his unusually stiff state.
It had only been a few minutes ago that he watched them fire an actual weapon. It seemed they did so in the inability to catch or see their victim. In this particular case it was catch and Lorne hadn’t been able to see where they shot this weapon from, but he did watch the sharp spike shoot out and strike one of the men in the back. With a stunned expression he watched the wound crystallise before it started to spread. Again Lorne had checked to see if the man was alive, but this time, he was absolutely and completely dead.
Moving away from the frozen man, Lorne returned his concentration back on reaching the weapon room. He darted around corners, using rooms to avoid being seen by passing groups of Xe-ne and stunning individual ones who were stupid enough to get separated. He stuffed them into empty rooms and stole the crystals from the panel.
When he finally stepped into the weapon room again, he found it empty save for the little girl sitting on the other side of the machine with a pack of crayons and blank patch of floor.
****
Radek barrelled into the room first, followed by Katie and then Tipson with the machine. They were the only ones to make it. The moment Tipson was in the room, he dropped the chain to the console and gave a brief nod to Major Lorne. “They’re a level down. I’ll try to buy you guys some time,” Tipson said before there could be any protest. The Marine lieutenant disappeared back out of the room.
Radek grabbed the console and dragged it as close to the machine as he possibly could. He unhooked all the chains and dropped them noisily to the floor before attempting to hoist the device up into the centre of the room. He let out a sharp huff of breath and a slight groan at the discomfort and was thankful when both Lorne and Katie moved over to help him. As they turned away to leave him to his work, the door opened. Lorne’s gun came up so fast Radek’s head spun for a second before he could focus on Tipson’s return.
“I found some stragglers,” he said, stepping aside as Chuck, Elizabeth and John stepped into the room.
“Elizabeth!” Mara screamed, darting through the middle of the weapon and straight into the woman’s arms. “It was scary waiting here alone.”
“Are we ready?” John asked, stepping up into the weapon room and looking around.
“Almost,” Radek replied. “I think.”
“Good,” John said, turning back to Elizabeth and taking the step down off the machine to stand in front of her. “You ready for this?”
“I won’t,” Elizabeth said, moving around the side of the room to the place Mara had been.
“Elizabeth,” John called before following her and noting that Lorne followed them. “You’ve seen what they can do. They killed Penny.”
“What did they do to Penny?” Lorne asked and John shot him a look.
“Some breathe on her thing.”
“She’s not dead, just... asleep, I think. The only way they kill is if they fire these sharp icicle things at you. I’ve seen two guys killed by that.”
“Wonderful,” Elizabeth said. “I needed that added to my nightmares.”
“I emptied an entire clip into one of them, and it barely faltered. As far as I know, we can’t kill them.”
“I will not risk using a weapon we know nothing about,” she said sharply.
“It doesn’t kill. It’s just a long range transporter,” Lorne put in.
“If they get in here...” John started.
“They are looking for the weapon as well as you,” Lorne interrupted.
“If they get in here, they can kill us all. There’s no other way out. Do you really want them to hurt you... or Mara?”
Elizabeth turned to face him at this. She’d been watching the girl drawing on the floor for a while and listening to their conversation. For a moment it crossed her mind that to have that breath thing on a five year old girl would not only be horrific for the child, but for the person caring for her to see. At the moment, although not completely officially, Elizabeth was that carer and she really didn’t want to see that. But Mara wasn’t even really there. She wasn’t human. She was an ascended being.
“Mara can’t get hurt, John. She’s ascended.”
“I can,” Mara said.
John watched the flicker of fear that crossed Elizabeth’s face as she watched Mara add brown curls to the person she had drawn on the grey floor.
“Who have we lost, Major?” John asked.
“I passed Hellton and Morrison with spikes in either their back or arm,” he counted them off on his fingers. “Milton, Tomin and Natal were frozen solid in their stance. And Max Beddin was only unconscious.”
“McKay said Lambert was dead, probably with the spike.” Tipson added, joining them. “Rodney got walked through and turned solid.”
“Not to mention the two others who were with Tipson to help me and whoever was with Lambert to get to Rodney,” Radek called out from under the console.
John stopped Tipson from adding his death count on after that and crouched down in front of Elizabeth. She’d dropped her head down somewhere in the middle of the list and he had a slight fear that she was crying as she fought against the need to use this weapon. When he was on her level though, he didn’t see any tears. Her brow was creased and her eyes were closed. He took her hand and waited for her to look at him.
“Mara’s told us that it won’t kill,” he said in a calm and almost too quiet voice. “We just have to trust that and we need to do this before anyone else gets killed by these things.”
“Erm,” Radek said before she could respond. “Who has the crystals?”
“I do,” Tipson said quickly and pulled the backpack off his shoulders and handed it to the scientist.
“I know you,” John continued. “You don’t want to lose the city. You don’t like writing home that you’ve lost people and you sure as hell don’t want them to hurt the Athosians or their children. I saw you with Mara when she wouldn’t go to sleep,” Elizabeth’s head dropped again and John moved closer, pressing himself against her knees. “If you won’t do this for anyone else, do it for her.”
Her eyes came back up to his and he could see a fear in them. She had a question for him and there were too many others around for her to ask it. He watched her eyes flick to the five year old girl now colouring the t-shirt of the person in red and he understood. He nodded when her eyes came back to him and she nodded back and stood up.
“Keep that door secure,” John ordered, standing up with Elizabeth and taking off his vest. He handed his gun to Lorne and his stunner to Tipson. He reached down and without hesitation, unclipped the holster around Elizabeth’s thigh and handed that to them as well before he took her hand and moved into the middle of the weapon.
“If I understand correctly,” Radek said while slipping the last connector into place and picking up Tipson’s bag, “this is Elizabeth’s console.” He gave her an apologetic look. It’s called Priloxi, which translates roughly to ‘Lure Forth’. And that one, Colonel, is Subvenio, which means “Assist’.
“I’m always here to help,” John said with a smile as Elizabeth stepped around the console and looked down at the simple design.
“This section of the city was flooded back when we arrived,” Radek continued.
“Hence the damp smell,” John said. He was trying to get a response from Elizabeth, stop her from shutting him out for the next few days like she had done when the replicator nanites had infested her. The haunted look she’d had for a few days had scared the life out of him and he didn’t ever want to see it again.
“Yes,” Radek said, slotting the yellow crystal in place and moving off to the green. “Well, that means I have no idea if this will work or not and as I have no idea how this thing functions or is put together, that will make it extremely hard to fix,” he inserted the green crystal and moved to the blue. “From what I’ve read,” he continued, placing the blue and moving to the red. “It’s designed to activate your genes as high as they will go and use them to seek out all the alien life in the city and remove them,” he placed the last crystal in the pedestal and turned to face them. “So I have no idea what to expect in how that will feel or if you will even be conscious after.”
John could hear the underlining ‘or dead’ that lingered on the man’s lips and was thankful he hadn’t actually voiced that thought.
“It also said it wouldn’t work if any other life was inside the chamber when it was activated,” Radek added before he took a step back and out of the machine. John watched Elizabeth’s eyes follow him and then flick down to Radek’s right to where Mara now had a black crayon and was furiously trying to finish her picture.
“Elizabeth,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. She nodded and took a deep breath before stepping up to the console.
John looked down at his, a button and several setting levers on one side and hand plate on the other. John pushed the button experimentally and waited to see if something would happen. When nothing did he glanced at Elizabeth and quirked a brow. With a shaking hand, she reached out and pressed the button on her console. Almost instantly the doors around them closed. The creak of it turned both Lorne and Tipson to face them with weapons at the ready and John saw Katie Brown straighten before she walked off towards Radek and Mara.
“Good luck,” Chuck said from behind him and John turned to give him a smile before the last glass panel closed in place.
John had barely a few seconds to look at everyone one last time before the panels fogged and blocked his view. A low whirring sound started and the floor beneath their feet started to vibrate slightly as though the long forgotten machine was now powering up for the first time. He turned back to Elizabeth and watched her for a second as she wiped her right palm on her pants leg and stretched her fingers out. One of her knuckles cracked as she shakily let it hover over the hand plate for a moment, then settled it down on the cool surface and she finally looked up at him.
“I love you,” he said before placing his hand on the plate on his console.
****
Ronon turned the corner to one of the civilian hide outs and froze. It wasn’t by choice and he had a moment of realisation that the other two people ahead of him and the one behind him were no longer able to take another step or raise their guns. The alien a few paces to his right had also stopped and he could see the white glow that usually accompanied a stunned beast pushing through the daze. This time however, nothing happened and Ronon watched in amusement as the Xe-ne tried again. Nothing.
A piercing sound echoed through the corridor behind him and a gust of wind that exploded with colour in front of his eyes pushed around him. He tried to close his eyes but found he had no control over his eyelids. He darted them back to the beast. He watched as the beast was pulled apart in its place and each speck of the being was pulled upwards before finally vanishing through the ceiling.
As the shriek passed, Ronon saw the colours fade with it and instead of focusing in on the corridor and the two armed men ahead of him, he found himself surrounded with darkness for a few seconds before he drifted off into a deep sleep.
****
Her heart was racing and all she could see was white. The panels she and John had been standing in front of had gone and there was no room around them. She knew John was there, though she hadn’t actually seen him. She could feel him, like she did in a half dazed state as she shifted in bed at night. To her left, a spark of red flickered to life and suddenly burst into flames. She wanted to step back, but a blue spark to her right turned her attention and she watched it hover for a second before splitting into a stream of water as though a waterfall has appeared out of thin air.
Curiously, she turned and watched a green spark develop into a small field of grass and long stemmed green-faced flowers. Then a yellow spark appeared and split into millions of little dots floating in the air and started to slowly swirl as though they were bits of corn that had been picked up by a gust of wind. She turned back to see John standing close by, watching the yellow swirl in a lazy whirlwind. The white began to fade.
The colours expanded out, turning the horrible dull, fogged screen around them into a lush landscape with a field below their feet and a waterfall in the distance and a fire flickering to one side. Elizabeth quirked a brow at it as the fire shifted in the air and formed a circle and rose to take its place as the sun above their heads. The wind picked up as the blue from the waterfall expanded and created a sky above them. It was beautiful and reminded her of a landscape painting her uncle had once done.
“Wow,” John said. “It’s like the holodeck on Star Trek.”
Elizabeth smiled and considered him for a moment as he continued to look around.
“You said you loved me,” she said, when he finally looked back at her.
“Yes, I did,” he said and licked his lips before stepping closer to her. “And I meant it,” he added, reaching up and running a finger down her cheek before he moved in and kissed her.
She let him take control, his body pressing against hers and his arms around her rested on her back. The kiss was firm and at the same time soft and it made Elizabeth feel as though every fibre of his love and being was put into it. There was no way she could stop loving this man. He made her head swim from a simple touch and a kiss like this was making every inch of her body tingle.
He’d waited six long months for her to be ready, for her to realise just what her feelings were and she had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he would wait another six if she wasn’t ready for more. But she was. She’d been ready days ago, before this started. She just hadn’t realised it then and wouldn’t have known how to go about moving on. Over the last few days as things became tense and emotions began to run high, they had taken the steps forward. Their first kiss had moved into a second and after that, standing in his room with him, she’d tried then to move. Tried to seduce him and had been doing a pretty good job of it until they were interrupted. Barring this machine working in the space of a few seconds, there was nothing to stop her now and she intended to make good use of such time.
Daringly, she slipped her hands down from his neck to the front of his jacket; it was still zipped up as it always was under a vest. She found the zipper easily and slid it down before pushing the material off his shoulders. John broke the kiss at this point and moved his lips down to trail along her shoulders.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. “I mean, we’re still in that grotty chamber and we have no idea how long this will take.”
“This or the weapon?” she asked with a grin. John pulled back and arched a brow at her before smiling his usual charming grin at her.
“I don’t want to rush this,” he said despite the look he gave her.
“Then don’t,” she said quietly and slowly untucked his shirt from his pants. “We’re in control of this room. I bet those walls won’t open until we push the button. And I’ll assume that while this lovely scenery is around, that we still have time.”
“You make a very convincing argument, Doctor,” he said, moving his lips back to her neck.
“I try my best,” she said and pushed at his shoulders to stop him. “John, I don’t want to rush us, but...” she stopped and swallowed the lump in her throat. “I want children and,” she smiled nervously, “it’s not like I have unlimited time.”
“It’s not like I carried a condom,” he said, eliciting a small laugh from her. “Standard field equipment consists of everything but that,” he said with a smile and leaned in to kiss her softly. “I want kids too. I want a little Mara, just as playful and sweet with brown curls and green eyes.”
“I’m gonna miss her,” Elizabeth admitted, her hands slipping onto his sides under his t-shirt.
“Maybe we can get her to stay and we’ll adopt her,” he offered and watched as she bit her top lip. “Or maybe we’ll just start creating our own.”
He stepped in again and kissed her before sharply tugging her shirt from her pants and edging it up her torso. When he had it high enough he splayed his fingers out over her belly and she hissed at the sudden touch of cold fingers.
“Sorry,” he whispered, moving once more to her neck. “Not like I stuff my hands in my pockets while holding a gun. You’ll have to warm them up.”
“And how would you recommend I do that?”
“I can think of a few ways,” he said, sliding his hands up under her shirt to cup her breasts. The drag of his fingers up her skin sent a shiver down her spine and tightened her nipples under the material. John hummed against her neck as he teased them and she pulled her lower lip in to stop from groaning.
When John pulled away, he lifted her shirt, forcing her hands up over her head so he could remove it completely. For some reason, she wished she’d put on better underwear, though the thought of wearing her sexiest underwear when in the middle of an alien war wasn’t that appealing. John didn’t seem bothered by her plain white bra though. He licked his lips and reached for the front clasp, but she stopped him. Placing his hands on her sides, Elizabeth unhooked the clips and separated them slowly. She learned a few boyfriends back that the first time a man saw you he didn’t want any distractions. John’s eyes were fixed on her breasts as she parted the material and pulled it from her shoulders before dropping it to the ground. She spared a second of thought that it would be soaked with the wet floor of the machine when she put it back on but was distracted when John moved in and suckled on her left nipple.
She let out a low, uncontrolled groan and gripped his shoulders tightly. As he teased, she bunched up his t-shirt, pulling it high up his back until she had no choice but to pull back from him to remove it. He moved away willingly, letting her remove the garment and then returned the task of teasing her other nipple. John bent at the knees, his hands slipping down her waist as he trailed kisses down her stomach until he was kneeling in front of her. She could feel him fumbling with her boots as he teased around her navel until he became frustrated and had to pull away to look at what he was doing.
With her boots gone, John moved to undoing her pants and she smiled as he placed a delicate kiss on her lower stomach. He pulled them down to the ground and helped her step out of them. Elizabeth’s hands vanished into his hair when he placed a kiss on her thigh and then sucked at the same spot. He repeated it on the other side, just a little higher, before switching back and again moving higher. Getting the idea, Elizabeth shifted her stance wider and tilted her hips towards his face. Her body was already reacting to his ministration and she bit her lip the closer he got.
Again, the plain white underwear didn’t bother him, or at least he didn’t show that it did. He reached the edge of the garment and slipped up to kiss her hip before kissing the other side. She was beginning to think he was going to tease her like this forever when he dipped his chin between her legs and sucked on the small, and quickly growing, wet patch of her panties. Her fingers tightened in his hair and her hips pushed forward more until she could feel the bone of his nose press sharply against her. He teased for a few seconds more before pushing back against her hands and separating them. He kissed her thigh again before looking up at her flushed face and then slowly eased the panties down over her hips and to the ground.
After she stepped out of them, his eyes began a trail up her body. He took in her legs, the patch of hair between them and moved up over her stomach to her breasts and she couldn’t fight the blush that reached her face before his eyes did. John’s hands moved from her ankles where they’d come to rest and he took her hands, now dangling at her sides.
“Come here, beautiful,” he said, pulling her down into his lap on the ground. He shifted, getting comfortable on the floor before kissing her again.
“This isn’t fair,” she said, pressing her chest against his. “I’m naked and you’re still half dressed.”
“Seems fair to me,” he teased and then groaned as she shifted her hip against his erection.
“Does that mean I get all the attention?”
John groaned again as she pushed harder against him. He leaned back, moving his feet out from underneath himself and then dropped back onto the soft grass behind him. Elizabeth followed him down and kissed him before starting her own trail down his neck. She worked slowly over his chest, flicking her tongue at his nipples and placing kisses at points around his belly button before skipping over his pants and down to his boots. Kneeling at his side, she undid them and pulled them off along with his socks, just as he had done for her. Before moving back up, she tucked her fingers up under the ankle of his pants and grazed her nails slowly up his legs until the material snagged just a little too tightly over her arm. She pulled out just as slowly and listened to the growl of protest he let out.
Elizabeth shifted up his side, placing her knees just next to his waistline and started to unbuckle his belt. She teased the button and zipper open and grinned when John lifted his hips slightly so she could remove his clothes. Instead, though, she placed another kiss on his stomach and turned to look at him.
“Rotten tease,” he said, reaching his hand down to rest on her calf.
She grinned back at him before pushing his pants down and letting his boxers go with them. His cock released with a slight slap against his stomach. She avoided looking at him directly while pulling his clothes off and then started to tease her fingers up over his legs towards his groin. She considered teasing him as he had done to her, but when she reached her goal the idea promptly vanished from her mind and she wrapped her hand tightly around his length.
John groaned and his hips lifted just slightly as she leaned in and licked the tip. His hand shifted up her leg as she wrapped her lips around his length and he paused with his hand on her thigh just below her backside. His fingers stretched out to tease her sex and she adjusted herself on her knees to give him better access. Without warning, John leaned over, grabbed her hips and pulled her over him to straddle his chest. He quickly adjusted his arms over her and leaned up to take a quick swipe at her sex with his tongue. She hummed around his cock and she heard the soft moan he let out as his head dropped back.
Elizabeth moved on, taking as much of him in as she could and using her hand to massage the rest and occasionally tease his balls. John took a moment to regain himself before he pulled her down to him and began his own little feast of her flesh. Six months of sexual build up forced them both to stop, though much to Elizabeth’s delight, John caved first and had to literally tell her to stop when he came too close to the edge. He joked about her not getting her kids if she finished him that way and then resumed his feast of her sex. His tongue was bliss, just enough pressure in the right places to bring her up quickly and when he stopped to suck her clit into his mouth she almost exploded. She knew he had that same cheeky grin whenever he pulled back.
After a few minutes though, Elizabeth crawled away from him before he could repeat his torture and she dropped down onto the surprisingly soft and dry grass that still made up their surroundings. John followed, placing kisses up her leg, over her hips and side before kissing her shoulder at the front to push her onto her back. She shifted to lay flat and accepted his kiss as he leaned over her.
“I love you,” she said, finally returning the comment he had said earlier.
He kissed her again before they both shifted naturally and comfortably into position. Elizabeth parted her legs for him and he set himself between them as he leaned close to her body with a hand around his cock. He brushed the head against her lips and Elizabeth’s arms came up to wrap around his neck. Her fingers scratched at his shoulders for a second before he repeated the motion of brushing the head of his cock through her folds to flick at her clit. She moaned loudly as he dragged back down and positioned himself at her entrance.
John kissed at her shoulder, her neck and then took her lips before he finally pushed into her warmth. Elizabeth groaned into his mouth. He refused to break the kiss, pushing against her tight tunnel for a moment before drawing back and starting again. It had been a while for him, months actually, but as far as he knew, she hadn’t slept with anyone since they were back on Earth; before they’d even met. The deeper he got, the harder Elizabeth found it to keep kissing him and eventually she turned her face away and took several deep breaths to calm herself. He felt so good and at the same, he was stretching her as though he was beyond anything she’d ever had before. Almost three years with nothing but her fingers for company was finally taking its toll, but she didn’t care. This was John, she loved him and the pain would ease. John shifted his knees as he finally hit home inside her and he turned his head to nibble at her ear for a second before he finally spoke.
“You okay?” he asked and she took a sharp intake of breath before nodding.
“God, yes,” she answered and he chuckled low in his throat.
He rocked his hips experimentally and they both groaned at the sensation. He did it again and Elizabeth wrapped her legs up around his waist. His heels dug into his backside and he adjusted his knees and sunk deeper into her warm bliss. He pulled back, ever so slowly, finding he missed the feel of her before he was even halfway out and slowly, almost as slowly as his initial thrust, pushed back in. She groaned and it sent a shiver of pleasure down his back and straight to his balls. They tightened dangerously so he pulled back again and thrust forward just a little harder and faster than the previous time.
He found the rhythm quickly, thrusting deep and slow against her, listening to her moans and pants as he wrapped his arms under her back and pulled her body flush to his. He could feel her breath on his neck, her stomach pressing against his as she took each breath and her hips rocked in counter movement to his, thrusting against him as he pushed into her. She began to falter, her breathing becoming sharp pants of air and her hips rocking out of time until she went stiff and he groaned at the pressure she placed on him as her sex contracted with her orgasm. He didn’t stop, riding her through all of it until her nails dug deep into his back and she relaxed into a beautiful pile of goo below him.
John separated himself from her, keeping them joined at the hip and looked down at her face. There was lovely glint in her eyes from the aftermath, something he’d only seen when she was excited or extremely happy about something. Her hand came up to caress his face, her delicate fingers against the two day stubble he hadn’t had time to shave. Her slow, sweet orgasm still tingled her body. John began to move again, his eyes on hers as he thrust faster and a little harder into her.
“Oh god,” she breathed, just before her eyes slid closed.
He could feel her body building up and building quicker to what promised to be a much more intense ending. He picked up the pace, thrusting faster into her and dropped his head down to suckle on her nipple. He could feel his balls tighten dangerously as though they would pop if he didn’t come soon and he hummed around the nipple as she started to tighten on his length. He had to release her nipple from fear of biting it when he heard a small mewling come from her, her hips thrust up hard against him, her arms around his neck tightened and she pulled him down against her chest as her orgasm hit hard. Again, John rode her, though he was barely holding on this time. She breathed his name and he couldn’t stop himself from thrusting hard against her hips and letting his seed loose inside her.
He collapsed, his body feeling like jelly on top of her and he listened to the race of her heart and the harsh breaths of air she took in. Several minutes passed before a low beep from the somewhere in their new environment started and he picked up his head to see the two white consoles back in the middle of the room. Or what he assumed was the middle of the room. He pulled up and slipped out of Elizabeth before helping her to sit up.
“I think we better get dressed,” he said and reached for her pants sitting on the grass nearby.
She nodded and took them from him before getting up and starting to collect her clothes. She had barely pulled her top on under John’s gaze when the environment faded and the pedestals reappeared, drawing their colour in as though they had summoned it to them. The fogged glass panels lost their colour and as Elizabeth ran a hand through her hair to straighten it, they faded back to their transparent selves.
Outside, they could see their people standing frozen. Lorne was against the side of the door, his gun pointed and a look on his face that told John something had entered his line of vision. Tipson was just outside the door with one foot raised to take a step backwards into the room. They turned, taking in Chuck, mid sit on one of the sofas around the edge. Radek was standing, watching as though he expected to see everything, and they hoped he didn’t. And Katie Brown was crouched in front of where Mara should have been, but the girl was gone. John drew Elizabeth close to him as he realised where she was looking and placed a kiss on her forehead just as everything returned to normal. He didn’t release her, keeping her close and letting her rest her head on his chest as movement began to form in the people around them. Radek blinked at them and smiled as Katie stretched herself up into a standing position.
“What happened?” Lorne asked, “I saw that Xe-ne vanish,” he added a little confused. “I watched it go to pieces and vanish.”
“You’ve only just gone in,” Tipson said. “It can’t be over already.”
John checked his watch behind Elizabeth and smiled, almost an hour had passed since they stepped in. He had glanced at the time before Elizabeth had agreed to go into the weapon in the first place. Everyone outside, possibly on the whole planet had frozen, paused in time and place while for them, nothing changed except their surroundings.
Elizabeth pulled away from him and moved over to stand by Katie. She was looking down at the ground where Mara had been drawing and she smiled at the picture. On the grey floor stood two people, one in red and black with brown curls and green eyes. The other was dressed all in black and has black spiky hair and brown eyes. On the floor between them, drawn by an adult instead of a child, was a baby basinet with a small fist poking out over the top of the side. Underneath the picture written in Ancient text were the words ‘The fifth element is life.’