Work Text:
“Elizabeth!”
Teyla woke in a sweat, even though the Antarctic waters around the city left a permanent chill in the air. Night after night she’d been dreaming of her love, the dreams insistent, urgent, meaningful in sleep in a way that did not translate into wakefulness. It took her a long time to process where – and when – she was. On Atlantis, in the Milky Way, three million light years and an Earth year from where they had abandoned Elizabeth.
Torren murmured in the bed beside her but didn’t stir. The child had slept through much worse than his mother’s nightmares. She ran fingers through her, grounding herself. Elizabeth would have loved him so – and never had the chance to meet him.
Then she looked to Kanaan, dear, beautiful Kanaan, who was shaking the sleep from himself, looking at her with concern. He and Elizabeth had not known each other well, because Kanaan had not been living with their people when the wraith came, but she thought they might have become friends, given time.
“Another nightmare, dear heart?” he asked her, and she just nodded, feeling suddenly fragile, her throat closing up.
“It cannot mean anything, and yet… why do I feel as though it does?”
“I heard you shout Elizabeth’s name,” Kanaan said softly. “I know how much you still miss her.”
He held her hand, kissed her brow. His comfort was welcome, but it did not change her longing.
“I do, and as time goes on, I find I can bear it less and less that we left her there,” Teyla said, fighting tears. “In my dreams, though, rescuing her is the answer to everything, not just my torn heart.”
“To everything?”
“To Atlantis. To saving our home.”
“I do not think of Atlantis as my home, Teyla, you know that.”
“I did not mean Atlantis is home," she clarified. "I meant Atlantis is the key to saving Pegasus.”
Teyla kissed Elizabeth, long and slow, revelling in the familiar feel of her lips.
Her face was different, but she was as much Elizabeth as Teyla needed her to be.
“I knew it was really you. All this time I have been certain, and it is slowly destroying me,” Teyla confessed.
“Then why did you leave me out there?” Elizabeth asked her, her face suddenly contorted with distress.
The dream universe shifted.
They were underground, in concrete rooms. People in white coats had Elizabeth on a platform, wires coming out of her, everywhere. Then they were on Asurus, and the sentient being that shared Elizabeth’s face was being sent in as a self-destructing weapon.
“You would have been an object, a weapon, a tool,” Teyla said sadly to the woman standing next to her. “Wired and caged and vivisected – devoid of rights.”
“I understand,” Elizabeth said sadly.
It was hard not to hear accusation in there somewhere.
“I am sorry, my love,” Teyla said, feeling as though if she began to cry her tears would never end.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Elizabeth said firmly. “You need to find a way to come and get me.”
When Teyla told Kanaan the plan that was forming in her brain, they talked it through until the too-bright night was long over.
“You must do this,” he told her, not a shred of hesitation. “It will work.”
“I will be breaking faith with people who have long been friends and allies,” Teyla said.
“We do not owe the Earthers,” Kanaan said. “They are well meant, often, but they have not helped the way they promised to.”
Teyla thought of the hideous experiments Kanaan had been subjected to by Michael, the friends they had lost to those experiments and to the destruction of his hive ship. His patience with the Earthers was admirable, all things considered, but it was understandably finite.
It was hard for her to think about what had happened. She remembered privately rowing with Elizabeth over the Michael experiments, and she remembered ultimately trusting, where she should not have. She felt guilty for both at the time. Now, she felt equally torn, ashamed of both the betrayal she was about to commit but also the loyalty she had bestowed in the past. The Earthers had been complicated friends to have, but making a declaration of war between them, as this surely would be, was momentous.
And maybe it was arrogant to believe Elizabeth would be on her side in this. But the truth was, just as clone Carson was more trustworthy to Pegasuns than his original precisely because he did not hold the same stake and status in Earther society, Elizabeth now would not have the same relationship with Earth politics, with the SGC and the US military. And that made Teyla trust her more. She had been desperately in love, and she understood Elizabeth so very well, but that did not mean she was always aligned with her decisions.
“What will it mean for us, if I have her back?” she asked, clinging to Kanaan, but wanting Elizabeth so desperately.
“What it has always meant,” he told her gently, kissing her, calm and sure and steady. “We are a constant; I do not fear sharing you. Not even with one you love as much as her.”
Abraham Ellis turned out to kinder than his reputation implied. Perhaps he harboured guilt in Teyla’s direction for what had happened to Elizabeth. Teyla was not above using that, but he appeared genuinely concerned. She did not need to push his buttons at all.
“We shouldn’t just leave you all stranded this way – I don’t see any reason why we can’t take folks back.”
There were six of them – Ronon, Kanaan, Torren, herself, Halling and Jinto stranded on Atlantis when it came back to the Milky Way. Teyla could not quite believe that the SGC would fly their very expensive ship just for them.
“We can call it reconnaissance,” Ellis reassured her. “There are good reasons to keep an eye on the wraith, even if we don’t plan to have a presence in the Pegasus Galaxy going forward.”
It angered Teyla, that information was worth more than the displaced lives of six people who had been such valuable allies to the Earthers, but Abraham’s heart was in the right place, and it did no good to be angry at powers she had no control over. Yet.
Afterwards, she told Ronon and Halling of her plan. They helped her hone it but were fully on board. Ronon had been so restless here, stuck amid the ice for seven long months, and itching to get back to his personal war with the wraith.
“We need to tell John and Rodney,” Ronon said. “Whether it’s goodbye or not… I think we can trust them with all of it.”
“Yes,” Teyla said, certain.
She had not always expected her two Earther teammates to be on the side of Pegasus, but since returning to Earth, their feelings on the injustice of keeping Atlantis here were unambiguous.
“The hard part will be making them stay when we leave, I think,” she said.
John hopped them up to Buenos Aires in the jumper, to a noisy bar which Rodney scanned for listening devices all the same.
Teyla and Ronon unfolded their plan as they ate empanadas and drank cocktails.
“We’re coming with you,” Rodney said, taking John’s hand as if he was certain he could speak for both of them.
“Of course we’re going with them,” John said, his eyes entirely on Rodney.
They were sweet together. Teyla was happy they had each other now, glad those walls had finally crumbled as soon as that iniquitous law DADT was repealed. She would miss them, even if sometimes they did not understand things the way she did. Since being grounded in Antarctica, there had at least been time to have conversations they perhaps should have had years ago. Teyla had been storing up anger for so many things – for Michael, for the Hoffan virus, the replicator code. And to their credt, they had listened, had taken her anger and understood the justice of it.
“No,” Teyla said firmly. “We need you to remain on Earth. You need to be on Atlantis, or we will not be able to steal her back.”
“I’m not sure how long they’ll let us stay on Atlantis,” John said morosely.
There was not really a reason to have people permanently stationed there – Atlantis was a weapon to be brought into commission when needed. Rodney and John had convinced their higher ups to let them continue to explore the city’s resources while they had the chance, but that would only be tolerated for so long.
“Then we will have to be quick,” Teyla said.
She did not express her very real fear that Elizabeth would not want to help, would not feel any loyalty after what her friends had done to her. If that was the case, they would help her start a life wherever she wanted to go and Teyla would say goodbye again – though her heart seized at the thought.
Without Elizabeth to even things up for them, Teyla did not think there would be any point in returning to Earth for Atlantis, and it really would be the end of their team.
She reached out for both their hands.
“We will be back within three months,” she said, more confidently than she felt.
“I hope so, I really hope so,” Rodney said.
“What if she hurts you? What if she takes the ship?” John said suddenly, his face as troubled as it had been the day they let Elizabeth sacrifice herself.
Teyla had fears, but that was not one of them, and she was sure John never really believed Elizabeth was a risk. He had forced himself to think this way to do what he thought he had to.
“She won’t,” Teyla, Rodney and Ronon said in unison.
John paused, and then he too nodded.
"I know, I know. It's just..."
He didn't need to finish that sentence. It's just how we've justified not rescuing her.
"All will be well, John, and we will be back soon, and ready to take Atlantis home."
“What if we still can’t secure Atlantis?” John asked, then.
Rodney launched into all the ways having someone who was a shapeshifting supercomputer who carried complete knowledge of Atlantis’ systems and Ancient technology, probably including how to make ZPMs, on their side was more than enough to ensure their success.
Three million light years. Teyla had crossed this distance many times, but the vastness of it did not diminish. As the weird light of hyperspace streamed past the windows of the ship, she felt herself getting closer to home, and even more urgently, closer to Elizabeth.
She went down to the tiny medbay and found Jennifer Keller, their new and surprising co-conspirator. She found herself moved to hug the other woman, grounding herself in the knowledge she was not alone here, and not alone even with the Earthers she was planning to betray.
“Do you have them?” Teyla asked when she pulled back.
It was all she needed to ask, and Jennifer silently passed her the case of filled syringes. Her other hand squeezed Teyla’s.
“Good luck,” she said simply.
While in hyperspace, there was just a skeleton crew on the Apollo’s bridge. Ellis was in his ready room. Halling, Kanaan, Teyla and Ronon entered the bridge with false smiles, forcing their bodies to appear relaxed.
“We have been talking,” Teyla said. “We wondered if we could assist? Some of us have training in this ship’s systems, after all, and this journey is inexpressibly dull.”
Her friends edged nearer the three personnel, exuding an air of benign curiosity.
“You’ll need to talk to the Colonel about that,” Sgt Jones said dismissively.
“I’ll go get him,” Ronon said with a grin that Teyla could see was dangerous, but the others appeared oblivious.
The second Ronon stepped through Ellis’ door, they all made their moves. Teyla’s focus narrowed to Becky Jones. The woman was all muscle, six foot tall and one of the few people who could best Teyla in a fight. But she was not paying attention, so Teyla had surprise on her side. She stabbed the hidden syringe into the woman’s arm just as the sound came of Ronon’s weapon stunning the Colonel.
Jones rose up immediately, turning on her with fury in her eyes, swinging for Teyla. Teyla dodged the punch, pulling her arms forward so she overbalanced and went sprawling. Teyla took a moment to check the others had their targets under control, and then leapt on Jones, pulling her arms up behind her. The woman struggled, but her movements were already becoming uncoordinated from the relaxant Jennifer had provided.
“I am sorry. We will not hurt you, but we will take the ship,” Teyla said, bringing the woman’s wrists tightly behind her.
Teyla already knew a lot about the Apollo from her training on the Daedalus, but Rodney had taught her everything she needed to achieve this heist – including a set of command code overrides to lock the ship down, everyone trapped where they were, unable to reach the bridge, and locked out of the network.
Rodney had also given her the coordinates to where they had abandoned Elizabeth, and how to find her when she was floating in the vastness of space. A thought Teyla could not bear to consider, even though she knew Elizabeth would be so frozen as to be dulled or sleeping.
Teyla released Jennifer first.
“Are you sure about this?” Teyla asked her. “You cannot go back if you openly join us now.”
“I belong with you. With Ronon. With Elizabeth,” Jennifer said, confident and steely. “And Rodney, if we manage to pull this off. And John,” she added with a wistful smile.
Teyla had to hand it to her – the woman was more open-minded than a lot of Earthers and had taken the addition of John into her relationship in her stride.
“Well then let’s get the crew fully secured before we come out of hyperspace,” Teyla said. “These are clever people – locking them in their quarters will only keep them out of trouble for so long.”
“You stole my ship,” Ellis said, as he awoke in the brig.
“I did,” Teyla said simply.
She did feel contrite, when Abraham had been so kind, but an apology, under the circumstances, would be hollow. She could not regret this, and he would not get his ship back. It was the property of Pegasus now. They were more than owed.
His face was set with fury, but then something shifted – it softened, just a little.
“Good for you,” he said grudgingly.
Teyla liked the feel of the commander’s chair, making herself comfortable and surveying her new spaceship. The chair was at the top of a set of steps, raising her above the rest of the bridge, nothing in front of her at all, and only rudimentary controls on the chair’s arms.
“This won’t do at all,” Teyla muttered, relocating to take the flight controls.
She needed to be hands-on not directing grandiosely from this glorified easy chair. She ran her hands over the complex controls, remembering all John had taught her on top of everything she had already learned from her technical rotations on the Daedalus. She knew what she was doing. Appollo was hers now.
Teyla was vaguely unsettled by the frisson of glee she felt. She had never stolen anything before, but sometimes it was good to start big.
Ronon was monitoring the sensors as the ship came out of hyperspace. Halling and Jinto were watching the prisoners. Kanaan simply took his reassuring place at her side.
There was the space gate, exactly as expected. Empty space all around, a planet in the distance. Rodney’s coordinates were right, but he could not know where Elizabeth had drifted to.
Teyla prayed she had not fallen towards the planet, where she would have burned up like a comet. Rodney had told her there was only a 3.25% chance of that happening, but that was enough to fill her with fear of the loss.
“One of them at these coordinates,” Ronon told her.
Teyla took the ship close enough to discover it was not Elizabeth.
The second replicator was also not her, nor the third. Tears of frustration threatened Teyla’s eyes but did not spill. A sudden sense of doom filled her. Kanaan’s hand landed gently on her shoulder, squeezing softly.
“I’ve scanned the entire sector now,” Ronon said, his voice choked.
Teyla’s heart dropped.
“There’re only two more. The sixth must have burned up,” Ronon concluded.
Teyla followed his first set of coordinates, her heart getting ready to tear itself out.
“I cannot do any of this without her,” she said, as the floating body came into view.
It was a woman – her long dark hair visible even from this distance.
“Elizabeth! Oh gods, we’re here, my love, we’re here,” Teyla said softly.
Immediately she launched into the practical operation of retrieving Elizabeth, quelling the fluttering of her heart and focussing on bringing their passenger onboard. The F-3O2s were secured, so collecting Elizabeth was as simple as opening the bay and slowly manoeuvring her into it. Intricate and complex to execute, but eminently possible. Soon, her body was laying on the bay floor, still and small and alone.
Teyla closed the bay doors and pulled the ship to an all stop, flying down to the bay with Ronon following.
There was Elizabeth. Her face wrong, her entire body frozen, but there was her love.
Jennifer was on the scene moments later. They lifted Elizabeth’s frozen form onto a gurney and took her to the med bay. Jen stroked Elizabeth’s cheek, her eyes filled with tears, and Ronon went to Jen, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, his own eyes wet.
It never occurred to any of them to see Elizabeth as a threat. If she had ever been a danger, she would never have walked through that wormhole into space. Rodney had said so at the time and everyone knew he was right.
Elizabeth was safe, at least in this regard, she knew that as surely as she knew her own heart. She had never known another person the way she knew Elizabeth Weir.
The med bay was warm, and they placed heat pads under Elizabeth’s body as if to comfort her, which seemed a little ridiculous under the circumstances but also necessary, so very necessary.
Teyla had no doubts at all that it was Elizabeth lying there. She didn’t care so much what had been lost – a face, a heart, breath – when she had all the evidence she needed of Elizabeth’s soul inhabiting this vessel. She did not know how things would be, she only knew that she would have Elizabeth – her Elizabeth – back.
And then a wave of guilt crashed through her, because getting Elizabeth back was enough in itself, but she could not deny that she wanted something from her love – and why should Elizabeth do anything for any of them?
Teyla heaved in a great breath that threatened to be a sob.
She wrapped her hand round Elizabeth’s quickly warming hand and felt it twitch. Moments later, Elizabeth’s eyes switched to open suddenly, her face turning immediately to hold Teyla’s gaze.
“You came for me,” Elizabeth said, and her voice did not sound artificial at all, it sounded like Elizabeth. “Teyla, you came.”
Tears finally broke free of Teyla’s eyes.
“I came,” she said, voice soft and choked.
She leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Elizabeth’s warming lips.
“We came for you, my love.”
Elizabeth looked to Ronon and Jennifer, reaching for both their hands, squeezing so tenderly.
“Thank you,” she said. “I promise… it’s safe now, without the others. I’m… me. As me as I need to be.”
“You always were,” Teyla choked out. “I always knew… And I am sorry. We all are so sorry for leaving you out there.”
“I’m guessing this little trip was not sanctioned by the SGC?” Elizabeth said, her face wry and oh, so breathtakingly familiar.
“Indeed not – there is much to tell you. The short version is that we have stolen the Apollo..."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at this, but she looked... proud.
"...and Atlantis is stuck on Earth.”
Elizabeth’s face looked horrified by this last revelation, and in that moment any last tiny doubt about Elizabeth’s capacity for care and empathy dissolved.
“So, how can I help you get her back?” Elizabeth asked.
“I was very much hoping you would say that,” Teyla said, beaming through her tears and kissing Elizabeth again, this time with just a little more heat.