Unexpected by Oparu
Author's Chapter Notes: Elizabeth gets a taste of being a commando as they take back the city. John helps Carson with surgery. (Mild Elizabeth whump)
Her stomach lurched as they went through the gate. The inertial dampeners absorbed all of the motion, but Elizabeth still felt her gut leap into her throat. They had a plan. They could take their home back from the Asurans and somehow convince the Ancients to let them stay. She tightened her grip on her weapon. The metal of the ARG was cold in her hands and heavy on her lap. The faces of her team were stoic. Death was waiting for them on the other side of the event horizon.
The rushing green all around her faded. John's voice rang out over the explosives that greeted them. "Hang on."
Her knuckles were white as she clung to her gun. John whipped the jumper around, opening the rear down nearly two meters off of the ground as he tried to keep it out of the line of fire. Ronon and Teyla were the first ones out. Rolling as they hit the ground, they disappeared in the smoke left when the Asurans returned fire. Clinging to the wall she pulled herself to her feet, Elizabeth took her place and waited for John.
The Colonel handed off the flight controls to a panicked Carson. John yelled over the chaos, "Dial out, keep the jumper hot and be ready to go if this doesn't work. Elizabeth will cover you." Carson's hands were trembling but he nodded. Patting the doctor's shoulder, Elizabeth held her rifle steadily on the doorway. John caught her eye and nodded once, his version of a pep-talk. Dragging Rodney with him, John disappeared into the crossfire.
Shutting everything but the hatch of the jumper out of her mind, Elizabeth waited with an icy hand clamped around her heart. A blast of energy surged past her shoulder to impact the wall. The acrid stink of singed metal burned the back of her throat. A body followed the shot, the tan and brown uniform was all that she saw before she fired. The second shot connected and the Replicator collapsed in a silver shower. Smoke billowed from the gate room and she crept closer to the hatch to get a better look.
A second Asuran came from her left and she hit him with the first shot. More silver dust as she turned to the right. A series of shots flew past her and she ducked behind the lip of the hatch. With her back to the door Elizabeth missed seeing the two who stormed the hatch. Turning around to catch one in the chest, she didn't have enough time to hit the second. The female Asurans' eyes flashed in triumph, terror erupted cold in her veins.
Elizabeth let out the breath she'd been holding in a rush as her attacker exploded. Ronon grinned predatorily and disappeared back into the fray. She crouched, more careful this time. Carson was depending on her; he couldn't watch his back and keep his eyes on the gate at the same time. The wormhole to their neutral planet remained open, glistening as it waited for them. Her breath hissed ragged through her lips.
White hot pain lanced through her leg, reddening the edges of her vision. Her ears rang from the explosion. Adrenaline left a metallic taste in the back of her throat. Her pant leg and sock were plastered to her leg with blood, but her leg would still support her weight. Her mind reminded her it was a flesh wound and she would live. The next Asuran who tried the jumper swung at her head hard enough to wedge his hand in the metal. Elizabeth felt the dust of his body on her face. It tingled cold, like a scattering of ice crystals.
An explosion blasted the floor, another grenade; the flash blinded her on the right. Glass shattered into a cacophony of sound. Fear made the stock of her ARG slick in her palms. Creeping out of the jumper, she searched for the source of the explosion. Another explosion showered her with debris from behind. A piece of flaming metal scorched the skin on the back of her neck, burning some of her hair.
Turning around too slowly to notice the Asuran who had caused the explosion, she took a blow to the chest for her mistake. The Replicator's arm struck like an iron bar, knocking her down so hard that the breath shot out of her chest. Lying there on the floor, it seemed to take an eternity before her chest would let her breath again. The Asuran dropped his hands to her throat, adding his crushing grip to her inability to take a breath. Struggling wildly, Elizabeth batted at his arm. It was as useless as a trying to defeat a rock slide with her fists. Her vision started to black around the edges. Her lungs screamed in agony. Her heart raced wildly, shaking her ribs as it tried vainly to keep her alive.
The blackness grew, threatening to take her. The last part of her mind that had any control insisted she had to stay calm. Her ARG was still clutched in her panicked hand. Letting go of her desire to breath and the frigid desperation that refused to let her think, Elizabeth lifted her weapon with all the strength left in her and fired it into the side of his head. His leering expression melted into silver. Her first breath was dry, full of the tingling dust of the Replicator's body. The second breath came easier. Her heart stopped trying to punch free from her chest. Getting to her feet seemed impossible. She'd never have the strength to stand.
She had to get up, lift her weapon and keep fighting until she couldn't. Carson and the jumper had to be safe, because everyone out there was counting on her. Rodney, Teyla and John; they all needed her to be here, alive, when they came back. Elizabeth's body numbly allowed her to stand. Her head swam for a second and the side of the jumper was all that allowed her to keep her feet. Her hands responded slowly as she lifted the ARG back up to her chest. Biting her lip brought a flash of pain she could control, something she could feed off of.
The next time she fired Elizabeth finally managed to do what Ronon said she should do all along. Stop thinking about firing the gun and just kill Replicators. When she managed to surprise two running through the corridor past the gate room she actually enjoyed the look of surprise of the face of the one who watched his compatriot disintegrate.
For a moment Elizabeth felt the power of being a predator. The thrill of hunting her prey, seeing them before they saw her and making the kill. Victory blocked out the stabbing pain in her leg. Dodging the Replicator's fire and rolling up to blast him into pieces, stopped her from worrying about her people. She tasted triumph. They were winning, taking back their home.
The city rolled with some kind of bombardment. The shield rocked with weapon's fire. The battleship in orbit had just discovered them. Even as the floor bucked beneath her feet, something started to build within the city. Rodney's part of the plan filled the air with energy, a deep bass hum that vibrated through her whole body. Building exponentially towards something massive. She could feel it run up her injured leg.
The air around her exploded with energy, and the floor fell away from her feet. Elizabeth dropped to her knees as her scream of pain disappeared into the sound. The entire city fired, rushing like bolt lightning rod towards space. It was so bright that it burned blue through her shut eyelids. The afterimage on her retina took a few seconds to face into the darkness. The city was dark. The night outside didn't give any light. Her fingers fumbled with her vest, searching desperately for a flashlight.
"They're dead." The voice behind her startled her so badly that she whirled and fired. The energy burst dissipated harmlessly into his vest and illuminated John's face. Throwing up his hand he kept her from firing again. "Hey- hey!" His ARG hung loosely from vest. Blood ran freely from a cut on his mouth, but his green eyes were bright with triumph. "I'm on your side."
Her own response was a sigh. Elizabeth felt her energy drain from her, leaving her hollow. "John."
He advanced slowly, as if he was afraid she'd shoot at him again. "Are you all right?"
Nodding made her head swim again, but Elizabeth kept her eyes on him. "I-" Her leg hurt so badly it started to tremble. "I think- Yes."
Hearing the colonel's voice, Carson emerged curious from the jumper. "Did ye get them all?"
"Oh yeah." John grinned crooked through his swollen lip. "Rodney's plan worked like a charm."
"That's good!" Carson checked John's face professionally, checking John's posture for any hidden injuries. "Anyone hurt?"
" We all got knocked around a bit. Ronon pulled his arm out of the socket, Teyla and I tried to shove it back, but he's going to need some professionally help. Teyla's got a nasty cut on her arm. Rodney's got a set of ribs that might be broken. I tried to get him to come back with me, but he insisted on staying where he is until he knows how we're doing." John sank down on the ramp of the jumper with a sigh of exhaustion. His eyes closed for a moment and he took a slow breath. "No sign of Woolsey, the general or any of the Ancients."
"Well, as long as both of ye are all right, I'll go check on Rodney." His stint as getaway driver was over, and Carson was comfortable again.
John sat up and started to strip off his vest. "I think I'll sleep until next week, but I'm okay." He dropped his vest on the floor and rolled his head over his shoulders. "Come on Elizabeth, I did two sweeps with a life signs detector, you can sit down."
Elizabeth watched him grow dark in her vision. Her first step towards him was steady, but the second one faltered. Her injured leg finally gave out. John was on his feet fast enough to catch her. She landed on his lap, his arms still tightly around her waist. his hands caught hers when she tried to grab her leg.
"Let him look." He ordered gently.
Carson's touch was light, but she couldn't keep her leg from trembling. The doctor passed his flashlight to John. He could hear her hissing through her teeth against the pain.
Elizabeth fought the wash of black across her vision. "Something exploded."
"It's all right Elizabeth." Carson grabbed John's vest and searched through the pockets for his knife. "I'm just going to take a look and see what ye did to yerself."
John kept her arms back, hugging her to his chest. He released her enough to remove her vest, carefully distracting her as the doctor sliced open her pant leg up past her knee.
"I'm taking this off too." Carson warned her as he started to unlace her boot. "Better tell Rodney his ribs are going to be second on my list."
John tapped his radio quickly. "How're you doing Rodney?"
"All right considering a bunch of nanites tried to beat me up." Rodney replied with a touch of amusement.
Watching numbly as Carson stripped her sock from her blood-soaked foot, Elizabeth concentrated on speaking. "What's the power situation?"
"The Lanteans had a single ZPM, which the Asurans drained in the conflict, but the Asurans brought three of their own." Rodney didn't sound as positive as a ZPM should have made him.
"But?" John ventured as Carson retreated to the jumper for his battlefield kit.
"I've overloaded every circuit in the city." Something electric snapped on Rodney's end of the radio. "I have no idea how long it will take me to fix it. I'm going to get the shield running."
"No, Rodney?" Elizabeth's voice cracked as she stared desperately past the pool of light Carson had on her injured leg. "See if you can submerge the city. If you have a ZPM-"
"I can get us low enough that they'll spend half their arsenal just trying to get to us..." The scientist trailed off as he concentrated too hard to remember to speak.
John kept himself as light-hearted as possible. Carson opened the kit and laid out his tools. Blood started to pool on the floor all around Elizabeth's white foot. "I'll send Carson down as soon as I can. Elizabeth's a few touchdowns ahead of you in the injury game."
"I couldn't stop working anyway," Rodney insisted firmly as he continued to tinker. "Will she be all right?"
Carson answered his question as he washed blood of his hands with alcohol. "I just need to pull a nasty piece of shrapnel out of her leg." He continued under his breath, "In the dark, without proper anesthetic." Looking up at John, his face was grim. "I need her up in the jumper, there's more light in there."
"You got it." John stood up carefully. "Ready?"
"I don't know what I think about this vacation-" Elizabeth's bit her lip again when she tried to stand. When had she gotten so tired?
John lifted her to her feet. The leg that had carried her through the battle screamed in agony when she tried to put it down. Clinging to John kept her upright, and the smell of sweat and battle on him distracted her from the coppery stench of blood. "I'll write a note to the cruise director."
"Thank you." With John's arm around her waist, and Carson at her side they made it up into the jumper. Elizabeth was relieved to be lowered down to the floor again. Her head spun less when she was sitting.
John couldn't help noticing the trial of blood up to their position. Carson looked grim as he lead him back down the ramp. "My surgical kit was damaged by one of their damn grenades. I'm going to have to dig into her leg and pull it out while she's awake."
John felt something cold clamp down in his stomach. "You don't have anything at all?"
Carson sighed heavily and lead John down to a badly burned black bag. "I have all the tools I need, a scalpel can handle the heat of an explosion, but the anesthetic's been completely destroyed. I know I should've brought more, but we in such a hurry when we left, and I kinda thought we'd have access the infirmary once we killed the Replicators. It's just a battlefield kit, It's designed to keep ye in one piece until ye get to a real medical facility. "
"A real medical facility stocked with Ancient medical voodoo that won't run without power." John grabbed a flashlight and a roll of duct tape from of the more intact bags. Jamming it into the seat so it would illuminate Elizabeth's leg, he taped it in place. "How long?"
"It's a chunk of metal that narrowly missed her fibula. It's going to take some time to repair the muscle, maybe more if I can't get the metal out right away." Carson shook his head slowly. "You're going to have to hold her down."
John nodded stoically before he went up to the front of the jumper. Coaxing as much light as he could from the internal controls, he had nothing left to do but sit down helplessly next to her. Elizabeth knew his expression. She'd felt his helpless frustration when she had to watch her people return home on stretchers.
Carson finished laying out his tools and snapped on his rubber gloves. "I'm going to have to operate on your leg Elizabeth. The shrapnel can't stay in because I can't stop the bleeding without removing it. I don't have anything I can give you. I'm very sorry, but it's going to hurt."
She lay back to her elbows, staring up at the ceiling of the jumper and willing her leg to go numb again. "How much?"
"John's going to have to sit on your legs so I can keep them still." Carson slid a sterile covering between her leg and the deck of the jumper. "I'll be as quick as I can."
She thought she was too tired to move, but John's expression was so dark she couldn't argue with him. He hesitated, unable to make eye contact. He removed his jacket and tucked it beneath her head as she finally lay back. He removed her earpiece as well. No one else needed to hear her scream. "I have to admit this is the last thing I thought I'd end up doing when I met you in Anarctica." John forced himself to smile dryly. "Not that I didn't fantasize about you and me and enclosed spaces."
Laughing slightly, she managed to smile bravely for him. "I've always thought you looked at me a little funny back then."
John lowered himself over her thighs. The tightening of his eyebrows screamed apology as one of his hands brushed a sweat-drenched lock of hair off her forehead. "It'll pass. It'll feel like time stopped and all you have is pain but it will pass." He stared directly into her eyes, drilling through her attempts to be noble and seeing her fear for what it was.
Carson wiped the area around the cut with alcohol, making her skin start to fill with goosebumps. John took a bandage from the kit and wrapped it around something dark in his hands. The light was above and behind him, leaving him in silhouette. "I'm going to begin." Carson warned a moment before he sank his scalpel into her leg.
The warm, heavy weight of John on her legs deadened some of the nerves. Her good leg was starting to go to pins and needles. John's hand tucked his pocketknife into her mouth. "Bite this." His suggestion seemed ludicrous. The gauze he'd wrapped around it sucked the moisture out of her mouth. She tried to protest, but John's face was as serious as she'd ever seen him. "Trust me."
Elizabeth knew logically that Carson was being as careful as he could. He was making the smallest incision necessary to get the metal fragment out of her leg, but she couldn't have been ready for the pain that ripped through her. Her hands shot up, grabbing John's arms desperately. She tried to move, to sit up, to tell Carson to stop, but John held her still. His hands caught her arms and held them to the deck. Leaning forward slightly completely incapacitated her.
Her scream choked around the knife. When Carson stopped for a second the agony of her leg faded to a pounding ache. Every beat of her heart hurt. John's hands were like iron on her arms. She fought him and her own pain. Every instinct said she had to get away. Get free from them both and never let anyone touch her again.
John watched her twist her head like a trapped animal and heard her bite back her screams. When her eyes closed he watched them roll wildly in her head. He held his gaze firm, so when she looked she had something to focus on. No matter how she moved, he was still. His legs protested the awkward position and his arms started to burn with the effort of holding her, but he remained.
Rodney's voice cut through her cries, slicing into his ear through the earpiece. "I'm ready to submerge the city. You might want to hang onto something."
Carson stopped immediately, holding his surgical gauze to the wound, he estimated how much blood she could still afford to lose. "Is she still conscious?"
The back of John's head bobbed slightly. "Yeah, she's here."
Carson got to his knees, whispering, "It's better if you can keep her awake. Talk to her, tell her a story, anything that keeps her eyes open."
John nodded again as he leaned down to her. He lowered his chest to her stomach, bringing his head closer. "Rodney's sinking the city."
Carson's radio crackled in his ear. "What are you doing to her?" Rodney demanded protectively.
Carson tapped his own radio and sighed heavily. "I have to get the shrapnel out of her leg." The city groaned around them, sighing like a great sea creature as it began it's descent into the waves. Water crashed around them, rushing to envelop the city. It thundered around them and then went still. After it left the surface the city sank in silence. What little light was left outside the jumper faded away entirely.
"She's going to be all right, Rodney. It sounds worse than it is," Carson reassured his friend as the city landed with a thump that rattled through every beam. The city groaned in a thousand places and then grew still. "Are we stable?"
"We're down." Rodney promised as he slipped off the radio. It crackled on a moment later. "Be careful."
"I'm always bloody careful," Carson promised as he lifted the gauze from the wound. The metal lay there, gray against the white bone. The bone had protected her, saved her from a served artery. He just had to make sure he kept her as safe when he removed it. "Take a moment," he suggested to John, "Let her breathe before I have to see how far this bloody thing goes."
Tears left white streaks through the sweat and dirt on her face. White that curled down into her hair. He wiped his hand on his shirt before he touched her face. "How're you doing?" He removed his pocket knife from her mouth for a moment and searched his vest for his canteen.
"Cutting off my leg would hurt less." Elizabeth's voice rasped, tired from overuse.
John helped her up enough to drink. "You're doing great."
She swallowed and dropped back to the deck. John's hair was even wilder in the strange lighting. Elizabeth couldn't see his face, but she knew his expression. The quiet dedication she counted on. Her good leg was completely numb. Without the warmth of John's body, she was sure she'd be shivering. "I'm tired," she whispered as he capped the canteen.
"You can't sleep." John's hands rested on her shoulders, waiting for Carson to make her screaming start again. "You'd leave me alone with Carson and he likes football even less than you do. Always wants to talk about cricket."
Elizabeth's attempt at laughter sounded like a sob. "I don't know anything about cricket."
John felt Carson's hand on his shoulder and shuddered involuntarily. "That's what I like about you." He lowered his head and wished he could take her place. "Carson has to finish now."
Her eyes grew a shade darker. She nodded and helped him place his knife back in her mouth. This time she kept her eyes open. Pain burned through the numbness in her leg and blazed a warpath to her brain. The bone throbbed as sharp metal slid past it. Elizabeth locked her eyes on the face in front of her and dredged up every stubborn part of her. She bit down until her jaw started to cramp. One of Carson's hands closed down hard on her knee, and what hurt before erupted into an excruciating agony. She fought one of her hands free and John pinned them both back to the deck.
Her back arched, nearly throwing him off with a burst of adrenaline. John flattened her back, waiting for the metal to slip from her leg. The pain faded and she collapsed, nearly too tired to cry.
"I got it." Carson dropped the sliver of metal to the bandages on the deck. "The muscle needs some stitches, but the artery is intact. It won't hurt as much."
Elizabeth didn't want to believe him. Pain was all that was left. John's thumb brushed across her temple, removing more tears from her face before they could creep down to the deck. Carson continued to stitch the damaged muscle back together. Instead of the blinding pain of the scalpel, each stitch only gnawed at her control. She let John take the gag out of her mouth.
"Your fingers taste funny." Elizabeth teased, her voice weak as she searched for the words. Carson closed a stitch and she shuddered.
John dared a look over his shoulder and turned back. "Just a few more."
"Will I-" Elizabeth's voice faltered into a gasp. "Be able to walk on it?"
John passed the question to Carson, releasing his grip on her arm enough for her to move it. The doctor studied his work for a moment, tying off the last stitch in the muscle. "If she's careful. No marathons and it'll get more than a bit sore if she stands on it for any length of time."
Nodding as he returned to her, John felt her hand on his shoulder as she dug in. "You'll be fine." Instead of pinning her hand, he removed it from his shoulder and held it, moving his thumb slowly back and forth. Her breathing slowed and the pain in her eyes softened.
Carson wrapped gauze around her leg and nudged John off of her. He knelt at her side, keeping her hands tightly within his. Carson wrapped his blood-soaked towel up in plastic and tucked it away. Washing his tools off with alcohol, he put them away as he spoke. "You've lost a bit of blood. You'll be a bit light-headed for the next couple days, but I think the leg's going to heal beautifully."
Elizabeth nodded; it was hard to focus on anything in the haze of endorphins. "John?" She started to sit up, forcing him to help her. Her head immediately started to float separately from her body. The shaking started in her shoulders and ran down her spine. "We have to get up to command."
"There's no power." John explained softly as he rubbed her back. "The circuits are fried. We're going to have to open the doors manually just to find some living quarters."
Moving closer to the warmth of his body, Elizabeth clumsily pushed her hair back from her face. "Don't they need our help?"
"Slowly now," Carson cautioned as Elizabeth started to stand. "You've been through a lot." Swinging his bag up onto his shoulders, he headed towards the power room.
"Maybe you should take it easy," John suggested as he supported her arms, "There's no hurry-"
"Mr. Woolsey and General O'Neill are still out there. We've damaged all the protective systems in our city, including the gate controls. We don't have much for food and we're trapped under at least one hundred meters of water. I can't just sit here." Elizabeth swayed and swallowed against the terrible taste in her mouth.
John produced his canteen again and steadied her hands as she drank it. She stumbled and his arms slipped around her back. Her head fell his chest, resting until her heart caught up with the demands of her body. "All right-"
"Wait," Elizabeth interrupted suddenly. Calling on the last of her strength she had to lift her head and looked him square in the eye. "I want you to know something first, before we go any father."
John felt his throat swell and wondered if he could even speak. "Okay." He waited, trying not to swallow against the lump.
"You and I-" Looking down for a moment, Elizabeth lost everything she was going to say. When she looked back up John was waiting, patiently expectant. "I never thought I could feel, after Simon found someone else, I mean, I never wanted to feel like that, but I-"
"Maybe you've lost more blood than Carson thought," John teased cruelly as he wished he could make his palms stop sweating. "You're usually much more eloquent."
If she'd had the energy, Elizabeth thought she might have hit him. Only he was right. She could always find a way to say whatever she needed to say and now she couldn't even put together a proper sentence. His eyes were so close, so much more intense than she'd ever wanted to notice. Pain shot up from her leg when she stood on her tiptoes but it vanished as soon as she found his lips.
John smelled like sweat and the jumper was rank with her blood, but the kiss was sweet. The corners of her lips were raw from his knife and his were swollen from his fight with one of the Replicators but for that moment they were perfect.
Turning away from his face before she could read into his expression, Elizabeth found the strength to smile. In fact, she couldn't have helped herself.
John stared at her, feeling shock give way to a warmth he'd never let himself admit before. "That's what you wanted to say?"
"Eloquent enough for you?" Elizabeth's eyes twinkled as she let him wrap her arm around his shoulders.
"Yeah." John started them down the ramp, careful to keep her weight from resting too long on her injured leg. "Yeah, that covers pretty much everything, doesn't it?"
Thanks again to Shannon, who places my commas
The rushing green all around her faded. John's voice rang out over the explosives that greeted them. "Hang on."
Her knuckles were white as she clung to her gun. John whipped the jumper around, opening the rear down nearly two meters off of the ground as he tried to keep it out of the line of fire. Ronon and Teyla were the first ones out. Rolling as they hit the ground, they disappeared in the smoke left when the Asurans returned fire. Clinging to the wall she pulled herself to her feet, Elizabeth took her place and waited for John.
The Colonel handed off the flight controls to a panicked Carson. John yelled over the chaos, "Dial out, keep the jumper hot and be ready to go if this doesn't work. Elizabeth will cover you." Carson's hands were trembling but he nodded. Patting the doctor's shoulder, Elizabeth held her rifle steadily on the doorway. John caught her eye and nodded once, his version of a pep-talk. Dragging Rodney with him, John disappeared into the crossfire.
Shutting everything but the hatch of the jumper out of her mind, Elizabeth waited with an icy hand clamped around her heart. A blast of energy surged past her shoulder to impact the wall. The acrid stink of singed metal burned the back of her throat. A body followed the shot, the tan and brown uniform was all that she saw before she fired. The second shot connected and the Replicator collapsed in a silver shower. Smoke billowed from the gate room and she crept closer to the hatch to get a better look.
A second Asuran came from her left and she hit him with the first shot. More silver dust as she turned to the right. A series of shots flew past her and she ducked behind the lip of the hatch. With her back to the door Elizabeth missed seeing the two who stormed the hatch. Turning around to catch one in the chest, she didn't have enough time to hit the second. The female Asurans' eyes flashed in triumph, terror erupted cold in her veins.
Elizabeth let out the breath she'd been holding in a rush as her attacker exploded. Ronon grinned predatorily and disappeared back into the fray. She crouched, more careful this time. Carson was depending on her; he couldn't watch his back and keep his eyes on the gate at the same time. The wormhole to their neutral planet remained open, glistening as it waited for them. Her breath hissed ragged through her lips.
White hot pain lanced through her leg, reddening the edges of her vision. Her ears rang from the explosion. Adrenaline left a metallic taste in the back of her throat. Her pant leg and sock were plastered to her leg with blood, but her leg would still support her weight. Her mind reminded her it was a flesh wound and she would live. The next Asuran who tried the jumper swung at her head hard enough to wedge his hand in the metal. Elizabeth felt the dust of his body on her face. It tingled cold, like a scattering of ice crystals.
An explosion blasted the floor, another grenade; the flash blinded her on the right. Glass shattered into a cacophony of sound. Fear made the stock of her ARG slick in her palms. Creeping out of the jumper, she searched for the source of the explosion. Another explosion showered her with debris from behind. A piece of flaming metal scorched the skin on the back of her neck, burning some of her hair.
Turning around too slowly to notice the Asuran who had caused the explosion, she took a blow to the chest for her mistake. The Replicator's arm struck like an iron bar, knocking her down so hard that the breath shot out of her chest. Lying there on the floor, it seemed to take an eternity before her chest would let her breath again. The Asuran dropped his hands to her throat, adding his crushing grip to her inability to take a breath. Struggling wildly, Elizabeth batted at his arm. It was as useless as a trying to defeat a rock slide with her fists. Her vision started to black around the edges. Her lungs screamed in agony. Her heart raced wildly, shaking her ribs as it tried vainly to keep her alive.
The blackness grew, threatening to take her. The last part of her mind that had any control insisted she had to stay calm. Her ARG was still clutched in her panicked hand. Letting go of her desire to breath and the frigid desperation that refused to let her think, Elizabeth lifted her weapon with all the strength left in her and fired it into the side of his head. His leering expression melted into silver. Her first breath was dry, full of the tingling dust of the Replicator's body. The second breath came easier. Her heart stopped trying to punch free from her chest. Getting to her feet seemed impossible. She'd never have the strength to stand.
She had to get up, lift her weapon and keep fighting until she couldn't. Carson and the jumper had to be safe, because everyone out there was counting on her. Rodney, Teyla and John; they all needed her to be here, alive, when they came back. Elizabeth's body numbly allowed her to stand. Her head swam for a second and the side of the jumper was all that allowed her to keep her feet. Her hands responded slowly as she lifted the ARG back up to her chest. Biting her lip brought a flash of pain she could control, something she could feed off of.
The next time she fired Elizabeth finally managed to do what Ronon said she should do all along. Stop thinking about firing the gun and just kill Replicators. When she managed to surprise two running through the corridor past the gate room she actually enjoyed the look of surprise of the face of the one who watched his compatriot disintegrate.
For a moment Elizabeth felt the power of being a predator. The thrill of hunting her prey, seeing them before they saw her and making the kill. Victory blocked out the stabbing pain in her leg. Dodging the Replicator's fire and rolling up to blast him into pieces, stopped her from worrying about her people. She tasted triumph. They were winning, taking back their home.
The city rolled with some kind of bombardment. The shield rocked with weapon's fire. The battleship in orbit had just discovered them. Even as the floor bucked beneath her feet, something started to build within the city. Rodney's part of the plan filled the air with energy, a deep bass hum that vibrated through her whole body. Building exponentially towards something massive. She could feel it run up her injured leg.
The air around her exploded with energy, and the floor fell away from her feet. Elizabeth dropped to her knees as her scream of pain disappeared into the sound. The entire city fired, rushing like bolt lightning rod towards space. It was so bright that it burned blue through her shut eyelids. The afterimage on her retina took a few seconds to face into the darkness. The city was dark. The night outside didn't give any light. Her fingers fumbled with her vest, searching desperately for a flashlight.
"They're dead." The voice behind her startled her so badly that she whirled and fired. The energy burst dissipated harmlessly into his vest and illuminated John's face. Throwing up his hand he kept her from firing again. "Hey- hey!" His ARG hung loosely from vest. Blood ran freely from a cut on his mouth, but his green eyes were bright with triumph. "I'm on your side."
Her own response was a sigh. Elizabeth felt her energy drain from her, leaving her hollow. "John."
He advanced slowly, as if he was afraid she'd shoot at him again. "Are you all right?"
Nodding made her head swim again, but Elizabeth kept her eyes on him. "I-" Her leg hurt so badly it started to tremble. "I think- Yes."
Hearing the colonel's voice, Carson emerged curious from the jumper. "Did ye get them all?"
"Oh yeah." John grinned crooked through his swollen lip. "Rodney's plan worked like a charm."
"That's good!" Carson checked John's face professionally, checking John's posture for any hidden injuries. "Anyone hurt?"
" We all got knocked around a bit. Ronon pulled his arm out of the socket, Teyla and I tried to shove it back, but he's going to need some professionally help. Teyla's got a nasty cut on her arm. Rodney's got a set of ribs that might be broken. I tried to get him to come back with me, but he insisted on staying where he is until he knows how we're doing." John sank down on the ramp of the jumper with a sigh of exhaustion. His eyes closed for a moment and he took a slow breath. "No sign of Woolsey, the general or any of the Ancients."
"Well, as long as both of ye are all right, I'll go check on Rodney." His stint as getaway driver was over, and Carson was comfortable again.
John sat up and started to strip off his vest. "I think I'll sleep until next week, but I'm okay." He dropped his vest on the floor and rolled his head over his shoulders. "Come on Elizabeth, I did two sweeps with a life signs detector, you can sit down."
Elizabeth watched him grow dark in her vision. Her first step towards him was steady, but the second one faltered. Her injured leg finally gave out. John was on his feet fast enough to catch her. She landed on his lap, his arms still tightly around her waist. his hands caught hers when she tried to grab her leg.
"Let him look." He ordered gently.
Carson's touch was light, but she couldn't keep her leg from trembling. The doctor passed his flashlight to John. He could hear her hissing through her teeth against the pain.
Elizabeth fought the wash of black across her vision. "Something exploded."
"It's all right Elizabeth." Carson grabbed John's vest and searched through the pockets for his knife. "I'm just going to take a look and see what ye did to yerself."
John kept her arms back, hugging her to his chest. He released her enough to remove her vest, carefully distracting her as the doctor sliced open her pant leg up past her knee.
"I'm taking this off too." Carson warned her as he started to unlace her boot. "Better tell Rodney his ribs are going to be second on my list."
John tapped his radio quickly. "How're you doing Rodney?"
"All right considering a bunch of nanites tried to beat me up." Rodney replied with a touch of amusement.
Watching numbly as Carson stripped her sock from her blood-soaked foot, Elizabeth concentrated on speaking. "What's the power situation?"
"The Lanteans had a single ZPM, which the Asurans drained in the conflict, but the Asurans brought three of their own." Rodney didn't sound as positive as a ZPM should have made him.
"But?" John ventured as Carson retreated to the jumper for his battlefield kit.
"I've overloaded every circuit in the city." Something electric snapped on Rodney's end of the radio. "I have no idea how long it will take me to fix it. I'm going to get the shield running."
"No, Rodney?" Elizabeth's voice cracked as she stared desperately past the pool of light Carson had on her injured leg. "See if you can submerge the city. If you have a ZPM-"
"I can get us low enough that they'll spend half their arsenal just trying to get to us..." The scientist trailed off as he concentrated too hard to remember to speak.
John kept himself as light-hearted as possible. Carson opened the kit and laid out his tools. Blood started to pool on the floor all around Elizabeth's white foot. "I'll send Carson down as soon as I can. Elizabeth's a few touchdowns ahead of you in the injury game."
"I couldn't stop working anyway," Rodney insisted firmly as he continued to tinker. "Will she be all right?"
Carson answered his question as he washed blood of his hands with alcohol. "I just need to pull a nasty piece of shrapnel out of her leg." He continued under his breath, "In the dark, without proper anesthetic." Looking up at John, his face was grim. "I need her up in the jumper, there's more light in there."
"You got it." John stood up carefully. "Ready?"
"I don't know what I think about this vacation-" Elizabeth's bit her lip again when she tried to stand. When had she gotten so tired?
John lifted her to her feet. The leg that had carried her through the battle screamed in agony when she tried to put it down. Clinging to John kept her upright, and the smell of sweat and battle on him distracted her from the coppery stench of blood. "I'll write a note to the cruise director."
"Thank you." With John's arm around her waist, and Carson at her side they made it up into the jumper. Elizabeth was relieved to be lowered down to the floor again. Her head spun less when she was sitting.
John couldn't help noticing the trial of blood up to their position. Carson looked grim as he lead him back down the ramp. "My surgical kit was damaged by one of their damn grenades. I'm going to have to dig into her leg and pull it out while she's awake."
John felt something cold clamp down in his stomach. "You don't have anything at all?"
Carson sighed heavily and lead John down to a badly burned black bag. "I have all the tools I need, a scalpel can handle the heat of an explosion, but the anesthetic's been completely destroyed. I know I should've brought more, but we in such a hurry when we left, and I kinda thought we'd have access the infirmary once we killed the Replicators. It's just a battlefield kit, It's designed to keep ye in one piece until ye get to a real medical facility. "
"A real medical facility stocked with Ancient medical voodoo that won't run without power." John grabbed a flashlight and a roll of duct tape from of the more intact bags. Jamming it into the seat so it would illuminate Elizabeth's leg, he taped it in place. "How long?"
"It's a chunk of metal that narrowly missed her fibula. It's going to take some time to repair the muscle, maybe more if I can't get the metal out right away." Carson shook his head slowly. "You're going to have to hold her down."
John nodded stoically before he went up to the front of the jumper. Coaxing as much light as he could from the internal controls, he had nothing left to do but sit down helplessly next to her. Elizabeth knew his expression. She'd felt his helpless frustration when she had to watch her people return home on stretchers.
Carson finished laying out his tools and snapped on his rubber gloves. "I'm going to have to operate on your leg Elizabeth. The shrapnel can't stay in because I can't stop the bleeding without removing it. I don't have anything I can give you. I'm very sorry, but it's going to hurt."
She lay back to her elbows, staring up at the ceiling of the jumper and willing her leg to go numb again. "How much?"
"John's going to have to sit on your legs so I can keep them still." Carson slid a sterile covering between her leg and the deck of the jumper. "I'll be as quick as I can."
She thought she was too tired to move, but John's expression was so dark she couldn't argue with him. He hesitated, unable to make eye contact. He removed his jacket and tucked it beneath her head as she finally lay back. He removed her earpiece as well. No one else needed to hear her scream. "I have to admit this is the last thing I thought I'd end up doing when I met you in Anarctica." John forced himself to smile dryly. "Not that I didn't fantasize about you and me and enclosed spaces."
Laughing slightly, she managed to smile bravely for him. "I've always thought you looked at me a little funny back then."
John lowered himself over her thighs. The tightening of his eyebrows screamed apology as one of his hands brushed a sweat-drenched lock of hair off her forehead. "It'll pass. It'll feel like time stopped and all you have is pain but it will pass." He stared directly into her eyes, drilling through her attempts to be noble and seeing her fear for what it was.
Carson wiped the area around the cut with alcohol, making her skin start to fill with goosebumps. John took a bandage from the kit and wrapped it around something dark in his hands. The light was above and behind him, leaving him in silhouette. "I'm going to begin." Carson warned a moment before he sank his scalpel into her leg.
The warm, heavy weight of John on her legs deadened some of the nerves. Her good leg was starting to go to pins and needles. John's hand tucked his pocketknife into her mouth. "Bite this." His suggestion seemed ludicrous. The gauze he'd wrapped around it sucked the moisture out of her mouth. She tried to protest, but John's face was as serious as she'd ever seen him. "Trust me."
Elizabeth knew logically that Carson was being as careful as he could. He was making the smallest incision necessary to get the metal fragment out of her leg, but she couldn't have been ready for the pain that ripped through her. Her hands shot up, grabbing John's arms desperately. She tried to move, to sit up, to tell Carson to stop, but John held her still. His hands caught her arms and held them to the deck. Leaning forward slightly completely incapacitated her.
Her scream choked around the knife. When Carson stopped for a second the agony of her leg faded to a pounding ache. Every beat of her heart hurt. John's hands were like iron on her arms. She fought him and her own pain. Every instinct said she had to get away. Get free from them both and never let anyone touch her again.
John watched her twist her head like a trapped animal and heard her bite back her screams. When her eyes closed he watched them roll wildly in her head. He held his gaze firm, so when she looked she had something to focus on. No matter how she moved, he was still. His legs protested the awkward position and his arms started to burn with the effort of holding her, but he remained.
Rodney's voice cut through her cries, slicing into his ear through the earpiece. "I'm ready to submerge the city. You might want to hang onto something."
Carson stopped immediately, holding his surgical gauze to the wound, he estimated how much blood she could still afford to lose. "Is she still conscious?"
The back of John's head bobbed slightly. "Yeah, she's here."
Carson got to his knees, whispering, "It's better if you can keep her awake. Talk to her, tell her a story, anything that keeps her eyes open."
John nodded again as he leaned down to her. He lowered his chest to her stomach, bringing his head closer. "Rodney's sinking the city."
Carson's radio crackled in his ear. "What are you doing to her?" Rodney demanded protectively.
Carson tapped his own radio and sighed heavily. "I have to get the shrapnel out of her leg." The city groaned around them, sighing like a great sea creature as it began it's descent into the waves. Water crashed around them, rushing to envelop the city. It thundered around them and then went still. After it left the surface the city sank in silence. What little light was left outside the jumper faded away entirely.
"She's going to be all right, Rodney. It sounds worse than it is," Carson reassured his friend as the city landed with a thump that rattled through every beam. The city groaned in a thousand places and then grew still. "Are we stable?"
"We're down." Rodney promised as he slipped off the radio. It crackled on a moment later. "Be careful."
"I'm always bloody careful," Carson promised as he lifted the gauze from the wound. The metal lay there, gray against the white bone. The bone had protected her, saved her from a served artery. He just had to make sure he kept her as safe when he removed it. "Take a moment," he suggested to John, "Let her breathe before I have to see how far this bloody thing goes."
Tears left white streaks through the sweat and dirt on her face. White that curled down into her hair. He wiped his hand on his shirt before he touched her face. "How're you doing?" He removed his pocket knife from her mouth for a moment and searched his vest for his canteen.
"Cutting off my leg would hurt less." Elizabeth's voice rasped, tired from overuse.
John helped her up enough to drink. "You're doing great."
She swallowed and dropped back to the deck. John's hair was even wilder in the strange lighting. Elizabeth couldn't see his face, but she knew his expression. The quiet dedication she counted on. Her good leg was completely numb. Without the warmth of John's body, she was sure she'd be shivering. "I'm tired," she whispered as he capped the canteen.
"You can't sleep." John's hands rested on her shoulders, waiting for Carson to make her screaming start again. "You'd leave me alone with Carson and he likes football even less than you do. Always wants to talk about cricket."
Elizabeth's attempt at laughter sounded like a sob. "I don't know anything about cricket."
John felt Carson's hand on his shoulder and shuddered involuntarily. "That's what I like about you." He lowered his head and wished he could take her place. "Carson has to finish now."
Her eyes grew a shade darker. She nodded and helped him place his knife back in her mouth. This time she kept her eyes open. Pain burned through the numbness in her leg and blazed a warpath to her brain. The bone throbbed as sharp metal slid past it. Elizabeth locked her eyes on the face in front of her and dredged up every stubborn part of her. She bit down until her jaw started to cramp. One of Carson's hands closed down hard on her knee, and what hurt before erupted into an excruciating agony. She fought one of her hands free and John pinned them both back to the deck.
Her back arched, nearly throwing him off with a burst of adrenaline. John flattened her back, waiting for the metal to slip from her leg. The pain faded and she collapsed, nearly too tired to cry.
"I got it." Carson dropped the sliver of metal to the bandages on the deck. "The muscle needs some stitches, but the artery is intact. It won't hurt as much."
Elizabeth didn't want to believe him. Pain was all that was left. John's thumb brushed across her temple, removing more tears from her face before they could creep down to the deck. Carson continued to stitch the damaged muscle back together. Instead of the blinding pain of the scalpel, each stitch only gnawed at her control. She let John take the gag out of her mouth.
"Your fingers taste funny." Elizabeth teased, her voice weak as she searched for the words. Carson closed a stitch and she shuddered.
John dared a look over his shoulder and turned back. "Just a few more."
"Will I-" Elizabeth's voice faltered into a gasp. "Be able to walk on it?"
John passed the question to Carson, releasing his grip on her arm enough for her to move it. The doctor studied his work for a moment, tying off the last stitch in the muscle. "If she's careful. No marathons and it'll get more than a bit sore if she stands on it for any length of time."
Nodding as he returned to her, John felt her hand on his shoulder as she dug in. "You'll be fine." Instead of pinning her hand, he removed it from his shoulder and held it, moving his thumb slowly back and forth. Her breathing slowed and the pain in her eyes softened.
Carson wrapped gauze around her leg and nudged John off of her. He knelt at her side, keeping her hands tightly within his. Carson wrapped his blood-soaked towel up in plastic and tucked it away. Washing his tools off with alcohol, he put them away as he spoke. "You've lost a bit of blood. You'll be a bit light-headed for the next couple days, but I think the leg's going to heal beautifully."
Elizabeth nodded; it was hard to focus on anything in the haze of endorphins. "John?" She started to sit up, forcing him to help her. Her head immediately started to float separately from her body. The shaking started in her shoulders and ran down her spine. "We have to get up to command."
"There's no power." John explained softly as he rubbed her back. "The circuits are fried. We're going to have to open the doors manually just to find some living quarters."
Moving closer to the warmth of his body, Elizabeth clumsily pushed her hair back from her face. "Don't they need our help?"
"Slowly now," Carson cautioned as Elizabeth started to stand. "You've been through a lot." Swinging his bag up onto his shoulders, he headed towards the power room.
"Maybe you should take it easy," John suggested as he supported her arms, "There's no hurry-"
"Mr. Woolsey and General O'Neill are still out there. We've damaged all the protective systems in our city, including the gate controls. We don't have much for food and we're trapped under at least one hundred meters of water. I can't just sit here." Elizabeth swayed and swallowed against the terrible taste in her mouth.
John produced his canteen again and steadied her hands as she drank it. She stumbled and his arms slipped around her back. Her head fell his chest, resting until her heart caught up with the demands of her body. "All right-"
"Wait," Elizabeth interrupted suddenly. Calling on the last of her strength she had to lift her head and looked him square in the eye. "I want you to know something first, before we go any father."
John felt his throat swell and wondered if he could even speak. "Okay." He waited, trying not to swallow against the lump.
"You and I-" Looking down for a moment, Elizabeth lost everything she was going to say. When she looked back up John was waiting, patiently expectant. "I never thought I could feel, after Simon found someone else, I mean, I never wanted to feel like that, but I-"
"Maybe you've lost more blood than Carson thought," John teased cruelly as he wished he could make his palms stop sweating. "You're usually much more eloquent."
If she'd had the energy, Elizabeth thought she might have hit him. Only he was right. She could always find a way to say whatever she needed to say and now she couldn't even put together a proper sentence. His eyes were so close, so much more intense than she'd ever wanted to notice. Pain shot up from her leg when she stood on her tiptoes but it vanished as soon as she found his lips.
John smelled like sweat and the jumper was rank with her blood, but the kiss was sweet. The corners of her lips were raw from his knife and his were swollen from his fight with one of the Replicators but for that moment they were perfect.
Turning away from his face before she could read into his expression, Elizabeth found the strength to smile. In fact, she couldn't have helped herself.
John stared at her, feeling shock give way to a warmth he'd never let himself admit before. "That's what you wanted to say?"
"Eloquent enough for you?" Elizabeth's eyes twinkled as she let him wrap her arm around his shoulders.
"Yeah." John started them down the ramp, careful to keep her weight from resting too long on her injured leg. "Yeah, that covers pretty much everything, doesn't it?"
Thanks again to Shannon, who places my commas