Pay for Love
Disclaimer: I don’t own "Stargate: Atlantis." I am in no way trying to make a profit off this story, I am merely writing it and posting for my and other people’s enjoyment.
Synopsis: Sequel to "Love’s Promise." An offworld accident involving her mother causes Kyana Dex’s past to come back to haunt her. . .
Rating: T
Warnings: Violence
Pairings: Ronon/Teyla, Sheppard/Weir, Kyana/other (kind of), mentions Sam/Jack and Cameron/Carolyn from SG-1
Chapter 7
Developments
"Hey, Mom." Jadin perched nervously on the edge of the chair next to his mother’s bed, knowing that he had permission to be there this time but still feeling like he should be ready to jump and run at a moment’s notice. "How are you doing today?"
Teyla didn’t move.
Jadin sighed. "Kind of a dumb question, wasn’t it?" Maybe being here wasn’t such a good idea after all. . . "A lot of stuff has been going on since you’ve been. . ." How do I put this? ". . .gone. Someone from Earth has come to talk to Kyana, and she’s been looking pretty upset lately. Dad’s trying to help her, but I know that he feels like I do-how do we help a girl?"
Silence.
"Okay, I guess I’ll just say it. We need you, Mom. Kyana keeps looking like the whole world is gonna fall apart; Dad never says it but I know he really misses you; Aunt Elizabeth hardly ever smiles anymore; and even Uncle John is bummed out. We all need you, Mom. Alex and Skye are trying to help me feel better, but I can tell they don’t know what to say, and I don’t know how to tell them it’s okay that they don’t." Jadin shifted in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand. "I just don’t get girls, Mom-well, except for you, maybe, sometimes. Alex has been acting weird lately, I don’t know, not the same as she did a couple of years ago. I think she likes me. What should I do?" Jadin couldn’t help talking, it not only filled in the silence but it helped him believe that his mom would be okay, that she would hear him and wake up-sometime. "Dad’s going to be back soon. He said he had to go talk to Uncle Carson and Aunt Elizabeth, about what I don’t know. Then again, he’s probably told you about it, huh?" He tapped his jaw with his index finger, shot a nervous look at the door, then stood and went over to the bed. "You gotta come back soon, Mom." He glanced at the door again, then awkwardly leaned across the bed and hugged Teyla. "I love you, and I miss you a lot."
She didn’t move or say anything, but Jadin could almost swear that she looked a little healthier than she had a few minutes ago.
Maybe she was getting better, after all. . .
Atlantis
"That’s it, he is so dead! The moment I find that little. . ." John glanced across Elizabeth’s office to where Alex was sitting doing her math homework and quickly reworded his sentence. ". . .jerk, I am going to open a wormhole to the closest Wraith planet and toss him through! I have had enough of Hoffman’s interference!"
Elizabeth looked up from her computer screen, one eyebrow arched. "What did he do this time?" she wanted to know.
"Nothing, other than inform me that I’m supposed to keep an eye on all of Kyana’s comings and goings. He said I was the best person since I wasn’t a member of her immediate family and I’m always the one who flies her over the mainland to take care of Athosian business. What am I supposed to do to the poor girl, stand guard outside her room at night?" John could swear he could feel steam coming out of his ears. "I’m telling you, Elizabeth, if something isn’t done about him and his little sneaky ways soon, I’m going make good on my threat!" He finally dropped down into the chair across the desk from his wife and ran a hand through his hair. "Elizabeth, there’s just something wrong about him. The IOA are sneaky, but they’re not usually this mean."
Elizabeth leaned her elbows against her desk and thoughtfully sipped at her coffee. "I had General Landry do some covert checking up on him the last time we contacted Earth. He’s legit, but that’s about all that the General could tell me. The IOA are strictly closed-mouth about where they found him and why he’s working for them, and why he was the one they sent." She set her cup down and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples. That was a clear signal that a migraine was beginning to build if John had ever seen one from her. "At this point, I’d almost be happy to have Richard Woolsey here. At least he’s learned when to quit."
Alex mumbled something about the square root of ninety-four and looked up from her homework. "Maybe he’s not who he says he is."
Elizabeth and John turned to look at their daughter, surprised. She’d been so quiet while they’d been talking that they had both forgotten she was even in the room. "What did you say?" John asked her, an idea already starting to form in his mind.
Alex shrugged and erased something in her math book, obviously distracted as she spoke again. "I don’t know. I just said that maybe he’s not who he says he is. After all, we are living in an alien galaxy overflowing with, um, aliens." She wrinkled her nose and quickly wrote something down, then smiled and looked up again. "Got it. Anyway, we have no clue what kind of aliens are out there and what kind of technology they possess. What if Hoffman isn’t from the IOA, or if he is but just isn’t who he says he is?" She shrugged, having said her piece, and went back to her math homework.
Weir and Sheppard looked at each other, "eureka!" looks plastered on their faces. "This kid is a genius," John whispered.
Elizabeth nodded. "I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before." She thought for a moment, then sagged and shook her head. "No, that won’t work. How could the IOA have possibly approved Hoffman’s coming to Atlantis if they didn’t send him?"
John rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Yeah, there’s still holes. But we’ll work it out, just you wait and see. There’s something extremely wrong going on here, and Kyana’s caught up in the middle of it." He dragged his hands down his face and sighed. "How, I don’t know. But if he’s not who he says he is, like Alex suggested, he’s got to trip himself up sometime, right? And when he does, we’ll be ready for him."
"And don’t forget about the person who hacked into our computer files," Elizabeth reminded him softly. "If there is something underhanded going on here, for whatever reason, it’s entirely possible that whoever that person is and Hoffman are in on it together." She leaned back and tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "And you know what? This just keeps getting more and more complicated the more I think about it." She groaned and covered her face with her hands. "Why are we running ourselves in circles, again?"
John smiled distractedly. "There’s something big going on here, bigger than a young woman defending herself and her family and being questioned for it. No, there’s an ulterior motive to the IOA’s newest tact. They’ve got something up their collective shrewd sleeves, and Kyana’s just an excuse, a motive to their means." He leaned forward and ran a finger around the rim of the Athosian pot he’d gotten Elizabeth for her birthday the first year they’d been in Atlantis. "We’ll have to be very quiet, and do a little investigating, ask some questions, shake the right cages, get the right people scared so they’ll slip up."
Elizabeth smiled. "Running battle maneuvers again, John?" she asked, a little amused.
John grinned widely, a scheming gleam in his eye that she knew very well. "This one’s a gem, Elizabeth. It’ll take a little while, but I guarantee you that it’ll slip up our culprits and make everything around here normal again. Well, as normal as it ever gets, anyway."
Atlantis
Thump!
"That’s for my mother!"
Whack!
"That’s for my family!"
Smack!
"That’s for me!"
Thump, smack!
"And that’s just ’cause I’m having a rotten day!" Kyana, sweating and irritated, glared at the punching bag swinging back towards her and let out a frustrated growl before hitting it again just for spite. "I hate my life!"
"Can I come in, or are you mad at me, too?"
Kyana let out a startled yelp and spun towards the door, eyes wide as she stared at the figure leaning nonchalantly against the door frame. "Who are you?" she wanted to know, muttering a word she’d learned from her Uncle John when the forgotten punching bag swung back and smacked her in the side, knocking her off-balance.
The guy lounging in the doorway chuckled at her frazzled expression and stepped forward, stopping the swinging punching bag by grabbing it with both hands. "Come on, it can’t be that bad. Unless you’re having a day like my sister sometimes has. She, by the way, freaks out when the moon doesn’t align right or some such nonsense." He rolled his shockingly blue eyes and grinned, holding out one hand towards her. "Jacob O’Neill. I’m here for the training program. My sister Grace and I flew in on the Daedalus a couple of days ago."
Kyana blinked, surprised. "I. . .uh. . ." She mentally smacked herself and plastered on a polite smile, reaching out to shake his hand. "Kyana Dex. Nice to meet you."
Jacob grinned and ran a hand through his messy blond hair. "Call me Jake, and it’s nice to meet you, too." He glanced at the punching bag, then back to her. "Sibling trouble?"
Kyana shook her head. "Surprisingly enough, I actually get along with my little brother. No, that’s not the problem." She tucked a strand of dark hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear. "It’s a lot more complicated than that." She walked over to her bag and pulled out a bottle of water, gulping half the thing down in three draws.
Jake walked over and leaned against the wall next to her. "So tell me about it. My mom always says I’m a good listener. I don’t give good advice, but at least I listen."
Kyana looked down into her water bottle and sighed. She wasn’t sure why exactly she trusted this guy, but she did. Maybe it was the natural way he acted around her, or maybe it was the kindness and concern she saw in his blue eyes. "It’s my mother. She got hurt off-world a week ago. Doctor Beckett’s still not sure if she’s going to make it." She swallowed hard. "I’ve always been close to her. For seven years of my life it was just her and me, until we found out Dad was still alive and we could bring him back home from where he’d been fighting the Wraith. But even though I’m an adult now, Mom and I have kept that closeness over the years."
Jake was quiet for a long moment, a faraway look in his eyes. "I’m sorry," he finally said. "I can honestly say I know you feel, though. My mom got hurt a couple years ago. She was on a supposedly peaceful mission with the rest of her team and got shot by one of the rebel natives who didn’t take too kindly to my people’s so-called ‘interference’ with his people’s affairs. She was badly injured, and it was pretty rough for a while. She was in a coma for over a month. But she made it, and is no worse for the wear now." He offered her an awkward smile and shrugged slightly. "I know the situation with your mom is probably different than what happened to mine, but what I’m trying to say here is don’t give up, no matter what. No matter how bad it seems right now, there’s something better on the horizon."
Kyana looked up from her water bottle and reluctantly smiled. "Don’t give good advice, huh?" Jake shrugged, and she nervously swiped at her hair again. "Thanks, Jake O’Neill."
"No problem, Kyana Dex. I’ll be around for at least the next six months, so if you ever need a friend, or at least an ear, I’ll be here."
Movement from the doorway brought both Jake and Kyana’s attention in that direction.
It was Ronon. "There you are, Kyana. I’ve been looking for you." He turned his gaze to Jake, then nodded. "O’Neill. Still working on that shuffling of your feet I told you about last lesson?"
Jake swallowed hard and nodded. "Yes, sir. Been working at it every day."
Ronon nodded. "Good. We’ll see how much you’ve improved next lesson, then." He turned back to Kyana. "Kayla’s looking for you. She said something about you were supposed to have lunch with her. . .?"
"Oh. . ." Kyana muttered a Satedan curse she’d heard her dad say and spun around to grab up her gym back. "Tell her I’ll be there as soon as I shower and change."
Ronon nodded and left as quietly as he’d come.
Jake turned back to her, his blue eyes wide with surprise. "Ronon Dex is your dad?"
Kyana paused and turned, halfway to the door already. "Yeah. Trust me, he may seem pretty tough, but he’s really a nice guy." She laughed at the expression on Jake’s face and waved quickly. "See you around!" She left this time, running down the halls with a flush on her cheeks and the first hints of peace in her heart.
Maybe, just maybe, everything is going to be okay. . .
To Be Continued. . .