(Untitled)

[feltgoodthough]

Ronon would never have said it to Heightmeyer or the woman who eventually replaced her who he had also been obliged to talk to on occasion (for a given value of talk). But every time he ran, every time he shifted his posture, picked up the pace and moved at speed, he could feel the Wraith at his back whether they were there or not. Running through

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[dojustfine]

Jennifer was doing something that was actually a bit silly, but she'd never really had time to do it before.

She was building a snowman.

It was partly out of boredom, and partly out of the fact that she'd always been too busy studying or something to take the time to just play in the snow, and partly because the snow reminded her of home, but whatever the reason, she was out in the drifts out back of her hut in New Atlantis, rolling snow into big balls. She had the body put together, and was decorating the face with bits of seashell when she saw a looming shadow fall across the snow and turned to see Ronon standing there.

"Oh, hey, Ronon," she said, not really knowing what else to say yet. She was glad to see him, of course, but she hadn't had enough experience with island arrivals yet to know what the best way to handle this was--at least, she thought he was a new arrival, though knowing the island who could tell?

[feltgoodthough]

Ronon did not get the Earth fascination with playing with snow - in a way, it was like sculpting except they didn't last, didn't look good and they chanced illness to do it. Given his previous encounter with Kaylee (who had also been taking part in this pointless activity - Ronon watched until he was satisfied that this was Jennifer and not another double. He grinned to himself for a moment, relieved to see her safe and away from Todd (as it had been implied she would be but Ronon trusted his eyes more.

Then headed towards her, watching her poke bits of sea shell into it's face, his footsteps steady and quiet on the snow. He nearly surprised her but he let his shadow fall across her elaborate waste of time until he had her attention. "Hey," he said, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow at the seashell pattern.

[dojustfine]

"Um," she said, shrugging at Ronon's glance at her snowman and suddenly feeling sheepish. "It's just a thing kids do, but I never... oh God, nevermind." She shook her head. "Did you just get here?" Maybe she could do a better job of explaining things than Rodney had done for her--his explanation had kind of made her want to poke her eyes out, even though it was as well-meaning as Rodney got.

[feltgoodthough]

Ronon nodded. It made as much sense as a lot of earth customs. He had liked the sound of the one he had heard about fighting in the snow (and assumed wrongly that Blades of Glory might feature it.) "'Bout an hour ago." he said taking in the ring of huts. It was homely - they had visited planets with villages like it. Weird to think of the city's former residents living here.

[dojustfine]

"Have you seen anyone else? I mean, has anyone explained to you what's going on here?" She stuck a carrot in the middle of the snowman's face, dusted off her gloved hands, and turned back to him. "It's kind of weird, I don't know if I'm the best person to explain it. When Rodney explained it to me he went on about pockets of space and time and alternate universes and it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

[feltgoodthough]

"Met some people," he allowed. "Weird island, can't leave - said I'd find you here." No-one had mentioned pockets or universes to Ronon but he had to admit it sounded like a McKay explanation. He looked from the carrot nose to Jennifer and back again. "Doesn't always snow," he added to his list of island facts. "Why hasn't McKay fixed it yet?"

[dojustfine]

Jennifer shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "I mean, I think he's been working on it, but it's just too complicated even for him, apparently." The idea of something being too complicated for Rodney was frankly quite unsettling, so Jennifer tried not to think about it too much.

She stuck her hands in the pockets of her fleece-lined coat and grinned a little, because despite the weirdness she was really glad to see him. "At least you recognize me," she said. "There were a lot of people who didn't--Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Beckett, Teyla--so it was kind of awkward. They're all from earlier points in time... again, something Rodney tried to explain that didn't make a whole lot of sense."

[feltgoodthough]

Ronon grinned for a moment even if they were stuck here wondering how long it had taken McKay to science up an explanation for 'it's too complicated for me,' and how long it would take to listen to. Of course he was sure he would hear it for some point. "Bet he's fun to be around," he said. McKay would figure it out - he'd just whine about it first.

Her next explanation however he didn't like. It didn't make sense and not in the way things were likely to not make sense around Atlantis. "Different times? No-one vanished." And Beckett who didn't know Jennifer was dead.

[dojustfine]

"I know, it doesn't make much sense," Jennifer agreed. "But that's the explanation, such as it is. People show up here from different timelines, and while we're here there's some--well I guess you could say, some 'version' of us that stays behind, so we're here and there at the same time." She suggested this very delicately, knowing Ronon's intense dislike for clones or copies of any kind (he wouldn't do well with the idea of there being a Ronon clone back on Atlantis).

[feltgoodthough]

"She didn't explain that," said Ronon half to himself. "Just about the lookalike, - more than one version here," he flexed his arms in the cold regretting staying still for so long. "Of you anyway," he hoped she knew that already - and if she didn't now she was warned even if the other woman had seemed harmless enough - she was still walking round with Jennifer's face.

[dojustfine]

Jennifer nodded. "Yes, Kaylee, I think her name is," she said. "I haven't met her, but I heard she looks like me." She was a little apprehensive about meeting her, though she'd heard Kaylee was a friendly person, easy to get along with.

She watched Ronon fidgeting, probably trying to get warm, and shook her head. "You need to come in out of the cold," she said, glancing him over for signs of hypothermia. "My date with Frosty here is over--why don't you come inside with me and you can tell me more about when you came from."

[feltgoodthough]

"I can tell the difference," he assured her, "had to convince her I wasn't going to hurt you before she gave me directions." And clearly he'd been very convincing - having left the double to her snow play as soon as he had what he wanted.

"I'm fine," he told her glancing at the apparently personified sculpture. But he followed her in, not needing a lecture now when he wasn't even injured. "I was with you," he told her, "on the Daedelus. Saving you from the Wraith."

[dojustfine]

"You're not fine," she told him, her doctor-voice--which she hadn't used in a while, given there seemed to be about a 1-to-5 ratio of doctors to general islanders, or at least that's what it seemed--creeping to the surface. She took one of his hands between hers for a moment, then shook her head and made a disapproving tsk noise and closed the door. "Your hands are freezing," she informed him, "and your lips are turning blue. It's not like you're dressed for the weather

[feltgoodthough]

Ronon grinned at the lecture letting her inspect his hand - it was only a bit of cold but she liked to fuss and he'd never got far arguing. Nor did he ever really try. He took in everything about the small hut, noting straight away in his head that he could do better. He wrapped up in the blanket and felt oversized in the rickety chair he took. He didn't know what the compound was - and given it seemed to be a source of earth style clothing he was not particularly interested in learning.

At her mention of him coming after, he wondered just when but simple made note - he could find out later.

"We were on the Daedalus," he said. "Todd said he wanted to try your gene therapy - you know - feed the Wraith food but it was just a trick, they took the ship. Everyone but us." He cleared his throat, "we stopped the engines but then they knew then they knew we were loose - you er, you tricked me so you could turn yourself in - Stop Todd killing people."

[dojustfine]

Jennifer sat down hard on the other chair, staring at Ronon. "I...turned myself in to the Wraith?" she asked, incredulous. She couldn't imagine what would possess her to do something like that, since she wasn't exactly the brave sort. She was the type that couldn't even climb a ladder without her vertigo acting up, she didn't have it in her to be the self sacrificing hero type.

[feltgoodthough]

"Yeah," said Ronon shaking his head, because it was foolish - brave but foolish and it had made taking care of her hard. "I told you not to and you agreed with me and then snuck off." He's been really annoyed and "I was uh pretty sure Todd had killed you so I decided start to taking out his drones. But he hadn't and I'd just shot the drones that had you when I ended up here." With the drones - without her. Or so he had thought.