Past, Present and Future (4/5) Ronon Dex [PG-13] Stargate Atlantis
Title: Past, Present and Future
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: General with suggestions of John/Elizabeth, Teyla/Lorne, Ronon/OFC, Rodney/Katie
Summary: How things change.
Past, Present and Future (4/5) Ronon Dex
Past - Age 14
"One of these days," his father said as he usually did when he was about to make a proclamation about the war between them and their neighbouring continent, "we'll learn that our own petty fighting was stupid. The Wraith will show up one day and destroy us. Do you know why we won't be able to defend ourselves?" the old man turned to Ronon as he asked the question.
"Because we'd have wasted our weapons and resources on the Samalan priests," he said attempting to hide the tired in his voice at the repeated conversation.
"The declaration of war that just went out," his father said calmly sitting down next to him, "was a promise to wipe them from the planet. I tried to tell them to just wait for the Wraith and let them do it for us, but they are too stubborn."
He paused and sighed deeply and Ronon turned his head to watch him. His age was showing on his face and there was no denying that bring Ronon up alone had taken its toll. Ronon had watched it slowly start to dwindle in the last few year when at meal times he would give him the larger portion and barely touch his own small helping.
"They will be rounding up new recruits Ronon," he said turning and catching his eye. "I do not know what youth they will stop at this time, last time, it was sixteen, but I would not be surprised if they went lower in order to get their numbers."
He paused again and Ronon met his gaze as he turned. He could see the fear that he would be recruited to the army in his father's eyes and he would be a fool at any age to not be afraid too. He straightened his back and turned in his seat to watch the old man.
"I will serve proudly in the army just as you did," he said without a trace of fear in his voice. His heart was beating, he was just a boy; just 14 and he was likely to be taken for training for a petty war he had no interest in.
He had known from a very young age that there was no choice, one day when he was old enough he would be forced into the armed forces. He had hoped that when that day came he would be trained to fend off the Wraith, not destroy a land of priests who had tried several times to simply request a trade for food and clean water.
Granted the Satedans needed the supplies themselves but there were many other ways to help them. Ronon had always wanted to travel through the ring that stood at the crossover to lower end of town and where they were now. It faced the poorer section for a reason; the Wraith would hunt there first.
This was something else that Ronon hated about their people, but the ring could be useful for something other than letting the Wraith through. The Prior, second only to the Satedan leader, often sent people through the ring to find trading partners, he assumed they could use it to find the priests somewhere else to live.
"Promise me something," his father said pushing up from his place and walking towards the kitchen, probably to start dinner. Ronon stood and followed him into the next room to help. "When they do put you out there to fight," he said pulling a few objects from a cupboard and dropping them on the side before turning and taking Ronon by the shoulder. "Promise me," he said almost angrily, "that you will never kill a priest, that you will never shoot someone who wouldn't do you any harm."
"I promise, father."
His father opened his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted by the bells of the city hall. The ring was only ever heard for one of two reasons, either the Wraith were here to cull, which hadn't happened in years, or they were officially declaring war and the gathering of troops.
"Listen to me," he said quickly as the sound of movement outside signalled that they were collecting their new recruits. "I have told you a lie all your life Ronon, I did so to protect you," he took a deep breath and Ronon creased his brow, what lie could he have possibly been told? "Your mother is alive Ronon, she is a priestess of Samala. If you tell anyone this information, anyone at all, they will kill you for it, do you understand?"
"She's alive?"
"Do you understand me, Ronon?"
"Yes," he was a little numb, but he said it. His brain began to run wild with the knowledge, the woman years ago who had stood watching him from across the street, the stories about the priests, priestesses and monks of Samala who had the blood to repel the Wraith.
This information answered so many of his questions. His father was the only man in their council to the leader who believed the Samalan should be left alone, that they would one day bring the salvation of their world. He had been raised with the belief that they were the only way to stop the Wraith.
If he was drafted today, he would have to find a way not only to keep his promise, but to find the woman he had seen. He moved across the room and climbed up onto the high stool that his father had made so he could help at the counter and picked up one of the vegetables to start chopping it.
Silence fell, the sound of his knife against the countertop and his father still rummaging around for things to add to his stew the only sounds. Ronon forced himself not to ask questions, he couldn't, not now and not with so many guards standing just outside. His curiosity would have to wait until they were gone, assuming of course he didn't have to go with them.
"Were you going to tell me?" he asked before he could stop himself.
"Yes," was all the man said as he pulled the pan from another cupboard and lit the fire to start cooking. "When you were older," he added and Ronon turned to watch him fill the pot with water and drop the things in that were ready.
"What's her name?" he asked hoping it would help him later if nothing else.
"Kyara, she was beautiful," he said the words as if needing to explain why he'd gone to a priest to begin with. "Long black curls that ran down her back, dark eyes and a smile that would entice you for hours."
He nodded and looked up out the window as the three older boys from the next house were walked past. The youngest of the three was only a year older than he was and it made him nervous. Surely they didn't hate these priests so much that they would take children from their homes and send them to kill them. Did they?
A sharp rap at the door made him jump and almost fell of the stool as he tried to move further away from the suddenly offending object. He didn't want to go, he loved his father, despite the lie and to leave would only mean he would get more ill than he currently was and probably because his son was being sent to kill his own mother.
The corner of the room suddenly felt too large and open as he backed into it and his father turned his eyes to look at him.
"I'm sorry my son," he said. "I cannot stop them from taking you."
"Why can't we ask the Samalan to leave through the ring?"
"I have tried that way of thinking, they do not even try to ask it of them, they won't even talk with them."
"I don't want to kill people, I don't want to hurt other Satedan's, they are the same as us are they not?"
"They are," he said moving to the door as the knock sounded again, "but the religion they follow..."
"Is simply different. They have done nothing to hurt us," he said pleadingly.
"I know Ronon, but you will have to keep that to yourself. Please."
With that he was gone and Ronon looked wildly around the room. The only way out of the building was through the door his father was currently opening. He hoped desperately for a reprieve, he was 14, barely 14 and he was small even for his age.
They wouldn't want him, he thought with promise, he was skinny and short he would be no good to them and they would take one look at him and leave. Ronon knew it was a desperate wish, but it was hope nonetheless.
His father appeared again in the doorway and beckoned to him, he didn't move for a moment, wishing the corner of the room would swallow him up never to be seen again. When he did move his feet were unsteady and he shook with the fear that he would never get to see his father again.
As he stepped into the adjoining room he listened to the end of a conversation between the man fetching him and his father.
"It's five years of hard training then he will be able to leave the facility to visit in his down time," the man said. "After that it is only a matter of time before we move the forces in."
Ronon moved unsteadily towards them and looked up at the tall and muscular man. Suddenly and for the first time wishing he was a girl.
"You can bring one personal item with you, Ronon," the man said and Ronon swallowed hard. He wanted to say he would bring his father, but knew that would not be allowed. He turned and walked slowly into his room and picked up a necklace his father had made for him for his last birthday and returned to the main room.
"Ready?" the man said and moved to the door.
"Be brave," his father said stopping him before he reached the door and pulling him into a hug, "five years will go by quickly."
With that he placed a kiss on Ronon's forehead and Ronon followed the man from the house. His jaw was clenched as he was lifted into the vehicle to be taken away and as they moved off he looked back at his home to see his father standing on the threshold and smiling proudly at him.
~~**~~**~~
Present - Age 28
He'd seen her every day since she arrived, it had only been a few weeks, but still he couldn't help himself. She was beautiful and every time he saw her he couldn't stop the voice in his head that sounded just like his father reaping the words of a description.
"Long black curls that ran down her back, dark eyes and a smile that would entice you for hours."
It had been the description of his mother but fit this new woman so well that it trapped Ronon in a dream-like state for several hours a day. As well as filling his nights with dreams that were not something he would repeat to anyone.
He wanted to talk to her, ask her out on what the humans in the city had called a "date", but so far the first part of this task had been impossible. Whenever he saw her she was with Elizabeth Weir. Granted he didn't doubt that Elizabeth wouldn't tease him for asking her secretary out on a date, but having someone there to listen would just make it twice as hard.
He'd heard rumours, murmurs that the she was the relative to someone in the city, but Ronon hadn't heard to whom she was related. He didn't care, he was captivated.
Since the Wraith war on Sateda, he had never looked at a woman with the lust in his eyes he knew he now held for this beauty. She had an unusual name, but then most of the people from Earth had strange names to him, but Nora was the strangest, yet simplest he had heard yet.
She had smiled at him a few days back and he must have looked the stupidest he ever had, gawping at her as he stared at her dark green eyes and bright smile. She had been alone then, but only for a second, he had been watching her talking with Rodney McKay only to turn and walk in his direction. He hadn't been quick enough to move, his heart beating faster than ever had frozen him in place.
Nora had passed him and turned a corner before he realised that now was his chance and he darted off. He rounded the corner and caught sight of her down the corridor walking along side John Sheppard.
He suddenly realised someone else had joined Nora and Elizabeth in the office. John was standing there talking to them and he gave Nora a bright smile that sent a wave of anger through him. He would not let Sheppard touch this woman, like he did so often off-world.
"Ronon?"
He didn't acknowledge the arrival of someone else in the area, he simply started, his eyes taking in the body language of John Sheppard as Nora stood up and showed him something on her PDA. He said something then that made both women laugh and Ronon wondered briefly which of them he had intended to capture.
He knew there was something between him and Elizabeth Weir and he'd held his tongue when one morning he'd seen Sheppard leave her private room. Would he be so heartless as to take two women at the same time?
"Ronon?" The hand on his arm made him jerk around and face Teyla with venom. "I am sorry to interrupt your stargazing," she said with a smirk. "Do you know what time the meeting is?"
"A few minutes," he said checking his watch. The reason he had arrived so early was because he needed a moment to compose himself. Nora would be present for this meeting and he didn't want to risk that if he had to speak, he would sound like a bumbling idiot.
"You like her," Teyla said with a friendly grin.
"What?" he said, badly faking ignorance.
"Nora," she said. "Have you actually met her yet?"
"No," he said and could feel the heat rise in his cheeks. "Looks like Sheppard's beating everyone to her though," he looked back to see the man grin at Nora.
"You have nothing to fear from John," she said and he turned a questioning eye on her. "She is his sister," his head snapped back to the office and he suddenly managed to see the likeness between them. "Ronon," she said quietly and he watched as Elizabeth got to her feet. "If you like her that much, you should do something about it, it is past time you took another mate."
"I can't get near her," he said a little too quietly. "She's always with Weir."
"I will find a way for you," she turned and walked away towards the conference room.
*
"Hello."
Ronon froze he knew the voice too well having practically stalked the woman since he first saw her. Teyla had obviously found a way to get her to him and alone, but he had to curse her for her choice of time and location. The smell of sweat suddenly intensified in the training room and he slowly turned to set his eyes on Nora Wells.
"You're Ronon Dex, right?"
He nodded almost dumbly and tried to find his voice, it seemed to have deserted him to the depth of his stomach which was churning dangerously at her closeness.
"I've been meaning to get to know all of the first team a little," she said calmly taking a few steps further into the room and Ronon became acutely aware that the door would close soon. "Elizabeth has pointed everyone out to me and I confess I've been a little nervous about talking to you."
"Why?" it wasn't what he wanted to say at that moment, he thought of words like "I'm harmless," or "I love you," but they seemed to join his voice in his churning gut.
"I, erm," she took a deep breath and looked around the room, "I kinda thought were cute when I first saw you, had to get my nerve together to come and talk to you."
"Oh," his mind ran though words his father would punish him for thinking, but he couldn't help it, she was right here with him. Alone.
"Teyla gave me some words of wisdom, said I should just get it over with and even dragged me down her."
He suddenly imagined Teyla standing just outside the door and became somewhat grateful when the automatic timer kicked in and the double door slid closed behind her.
"I've seen you around a few times," she paused and looked down and he realised she was just as nervous as he was. "Quite a few times actually," he smiled despite himself, knowing she'd known he was following her. "Where you trying to find time to talk to me?" She had taken a few steps forward as she asked this and Ronon shifted uncomfortably.
"No," he said harshly and couldn't hide the regret for the outburst on his face. "Sorry," he said just as shortly. "It's just that..." he swallowed a lump in his throat and tried vainly to clear it out.
"I've seen the way you look at me, Ronon," she said and he sighed and looked down. "Were you afraid of talking to me because I'm John's sister?"
"No," he shook his head but didn't raise it to look at her. "I haven't felt this way about a woman since the Wraith war on Sateda."
"When was that?" he looked up this time, confused by the question. He knew only too well that Elizabeth would have told her everything about the Atlantis flag team.
"I thought you would have been told that."
"I was," she said honestly and he caught the small smile she gave him. "But you seemed more comfortable with that line of conversation."
She took a few more steps and the now lingering smell of sweat suddenly lurched down his throat to become tangible. He involuntarily dropped his eyes to her lips and had to bite back a growl as her tongue darted out to lick them.
"Almost ten years ago," he said unable to take his eyes off her soft lips. She was only a few steps away from him. It would take him one long stride to close the gap, take her slim form into his arms and kiss her.
"Was she your wife?"
"No," he said. "She was going to be." Only John had ever asked him that question. He'd said less to his close friend than he did to this woman. "I loved her, but that was a long time ago."
A few more steps and Ronon suddenly brought his eyes up to her eyes. There was something there; hidden by a careful expression and it occurred to him that she didn't approach him slowly to make him comfortable with her. The conversation she started had done that job. She came closer for something else.
He swallowed at the lump again as she took yet another small step and he felt his breathing increase. His opportunity to actually ask her for a date was running out, it wouldn't be long before the radio in her ear would activate; she would be called away.
Without thinking about it, without even meaning to act he took a half step forward and lowered his lips to hers. She didn't protest or move away, she was as tentative in the kiss as he was.
When he broke away he was on the verge of apologising for forcing the kiss on her, but she smiled up at him and he heard the beep of her radio.
"Join me for dinner," he said shortly as her hand came up to answer the radio. Her face relaxed into another smiled.
"Come fetch me at seven," she said before activating the radio. Her smile grew brighter as she turned to leave the room. The door closed quicker for her on the way out and the second it was shut, Ronon sank to his knees on the padded floor.
"Thank the gods," he breathed a blessing no other Satedan would mutter.
~~**~~**~~
Future - Age 32
For all the things that had occurred in his life, good and bad, there was nothing as frustrating and nerve racking as this. He could remember the day he was drafted for the war, the day he returned home almost three years earlier than initially thought. The day the Wraith came and he watched his contingent slowly slaughtered.
All the pain he had suffered, the sadness he had felt, the anger at the Wraith and every emotion he could image from such an early age. Still nothing compared to the strange sensation of anticipation and fear that settled over him now.
He was going to be a parent. Better than that, he was going to be a real father, he would have no worry about his child being drafted or fighting a Wraith war like he had done. He wouldn't have to hide the child's identity from the people around him and above all, he had learned that he could show emotion and no one would think poorly of him for it.
Ronon paced back across the doorway aware that the eyes of Elizabeth Weir and John Sheppard were on him. But they could watch him all they liked. It didn't change the fact that he thought himself on the wrong side of the door.
Elizabeth had told him when this had started that on Earth, men could be in the room when their children were born, if both parties wanted it. He knew Nora wanted it, but he was bound by two separate laws he had learned as he grew up on Sateda. The Satedan's would never allow the moment of such indignity to be shown to man, except the husband, but he and Nora were not married. The Samalan law stated that the gods they worshiped would give the child an illness or disability should he see it before it was cleaned and comforted by the mother.
As he had in the last ten years taken to thanking those gods for bringing Nora his way, and keeping John Sheppard from hurting him for touching her, he felt it best not to overstep his bounds.
The door opened and a young and new female doctor stepped out and smiled at him. On either side of him John and Elizabeth got to their feet waiting to hear the verdict of the baby's sex.
"Congratulations," she said, "it's a girl. She's already clean and with Nora."
Ronon felt his heart stop; almost literally. He had a daughter, a beautiful little girl who he could teach to be as powerful and deadly as Teyla and as wild as he had been without fear. His feet moved without his brain's comprehension and he found himself standing at Nora's bedside looking down at the tiny face.
"What are you going to call her?" Elizabeth asked from just behind him and he couldn't think of an appropriate name; not that he and Nora had ever talked about names.
"Kyara," Nora said causing him to look sharply up at her and pulling the muscle in his neck. "Take her Ronon," she said with tears in her eyes. "Take our daughter."
He reached out and took the small delicate girl in his arms and looked down at her. Black eyes stared up at him for a moment before they drifted slowly closed and he smiled as she started her first sleep in his arms.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: General with suggestions of John/Elizabeth, Teyla/Lorne, Ronon/OFC, Rodney/Katie
Summary: How things change.
Past, Present and Future (4/5) Ronon Dex
Past - Age 14
"One of these days," his father said as he usually did when he was about to make a proclamation about the war between them and their neighbouring continent, "we'll learn that our own petty fighting was stupid. The Wraith will show up one day and destroy us. Do you know why we won't be able to defend ourselves?" the old man turned to Ronon as he asked the question.
"Because we'd have wasted our weapons and resources on the Samalan priests," he said attempting to hide the tired in his voice at the repeated conversation.
"The declaration of war that just went out," his father said calmly sitting down next to him, "was a promise to wipe them from the planet. I tried to tell them to just wait for the Wraith and let them do it for us, but they are too stubborn."
He paused and sighed deeply and Ronon turned his head to watch him. His age was showing on his face and there was no denying that bring Ronon up alone had taken its toll. Ronon had watched it slowly start to dwindle in the last few year when at meal times he would give him the larger portion and barely touch his own small helping.
"They will be rounding up new recruits Ronon," he said turning and catching his eye. "I do not know what youth they will stop at this time, last time, it was sixteen, but I would not be surprised if they went lower in order to get their numbers."
He paused again and Ronon met his gaze as he turned. He could see the fear that he would be recruited to the army in his father's eyes and he would be a fool at any age to not be afraid too. He straightened his back and turned in his seat to watch the old man.
"I will serve proudly in the army just as you did," he said without a trace of fear in his voice. His heart was beating, he was just a boy; just 14 and he was likely to be taken for training for a petty war he had no interest in.
He had known from a very young age that there was no choice, one day when he was old enough he would be forced into the armed forces. He had hoped that when that day came he would be trained to fend off the Wraith, not destroy a land of priests who had tried several times to simply request a trade for food and clean water.
Granted the Satedans needed the supplies themselves but there were many other ways to help them. Ronon had always wanted to travel through the ring that stood at the crossover to lower end of town and where they were now. It faced the poorer section for a reason; the Wraith would hunt there first.
This was something else that Ronon hated about their people, but the ring could be useful for something other than letting the Wraith through. The Prior, second only to the Satedan leader, often sent people through the ring to find trading partners, he assumed they could use it to find the priests somewhere else to live.
"Promise me something," his father said pushing up from his place and walking towards the kitchen, probably to start dinner. Ronon stood and followed him into the next room to help. "When they do put you out there to fight," he said pulling a few objects from a cupboard and dropping them on the side before turning and taking Ronon by the shoulder. "Promise me," he said almost angrily, "that you will never kill a priest, that you will never shoot someone who wouldn't do you any harm."
"I promise, father."
His father opened his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted by the bells of the city hall. The ring was only ever heard for one of two reasons, either the Wraith were here to cull, which hadn't happened in years, or they were officially declaring war and the gathering of troops.
"Listen to me," he said quickly as the sound of movement outside signalled that they were collecting their new recruits. "I have told you a lie all your life Ronon, I did so to protect you," he took a deep breath and Ronon creased his brow, what lie could he have possibly been told? "Your mother is alive Ronon, she is a priestess of Samala. If you tell anyone this information, anyone at all, they will kill you for it, do you understand?"
"She's alive?"
"Do you understand me, Ronon?"
"Yes," he was a little numb, but he said it. His brain began to run wild with the knowledge, the woman years ago who had stood watching him from across the street, the stories about the priests, priestesses and monks of Samala who had the blood to repel the Wraith.
This information answered so many of his questions. His father was the only man in their council to the leader who believed the Samalan should be left alone, that they would one day bring the salvation of their world. He had been raised with the belief that they were the only way to stop the Wraith.
If he was drafted today, he would have to find a way not only to keep his promise, but to find the woman he had seen. He moved across the room and climbed up onto the high stool that his father had made so he could help at the counter and picked up one of the vegetables to start chopping it.
Silence fell, the sound of his knife against the countertop and his father still rummaging around for things to add to his stew the only sounds. Ronon forced himself not to ask questions, he couldn't, not now and not with so many guards standing just outside. His curiosity would have to wait until they were gone, assuming of course he didn't have to go with them.
"Were you going to tell me?" he asked before he could stop himself.
"Yes," was all the man said as he pulled the pan from another cupboard and lit the fire to start cooking. "When you were older," he added and Ronon turned to watch him fill the pot with water and drop the things in that were ready.
"What's her name?" he asked hoping it would help him later if nothing else.
"Kyara, she was beautiful," he said the words as if needing to explain why he'd gone to a priest to begin with. "Long black curls that ran down her back, dark eyes and a smile that would entice you for hours."
He nodded and looked up out the window as the three older boys from the next house were walked past. The youngest of the three was only a year older than he was and it made him nervous. Surely they didn't hate these priests so much that they would take children from their homes and send them to kill them. Did they?
A sharp rap at the door made him jump and almost fell of the stool as he tried to move further away from the suddenly offending object. He didn't want to go, he loved his father, despite the lie and to leave would only mean he would get more ill than he currently was and probably because his son was being sent to kill his own mother.
The corner of the room suddenly felt too large and open as he backed into it and his father turned his eyes to look at him.
"I'm sorry my son," he said. "I cannot stop them from taking you."
"Why can't we ask the Samalan to leave through the ring?"
"I have tried that way of thinking, they do not even try to ask it of them, they won't even talk with them."
"I don't want to kill people, I don't want to hurt other Satedan's, they are the same as us are they not?"
"They are," he said moving to the door as the knock sounded again, "but the religion they follow..."
"Is simply different. They have done nothing to hurt us," he said pleadingly.
"I know Ronon, but you will have to keep that to yourself. Please."
With that he was gone and Ronon looked wildly around the room. The only way out of the building was through the door his father was currently opening. He hoped desperately for a reprieve, he was 14, barely 14 and he was small even for his age.
They wouldn't want him, he thought with promise, he was skinny and short he would be no good to them and they would take one look at him and leave. Ronon knew it was a desperate wish, but it was hope nonetheless.
His father appeared again in the doorway and beckoned to him, he didn't move for a moment, wishing the corner of the room would swallow him up never to be seen again. When he did move his feet were unsteady and he shook with the fear that he would never get to see his father again.
As he stepped into the adjoining room he listened to the end of a conversation between the man fetching him and his father.
"It's five years of hard training then he will be able to leave the facility to visit in his down time," the man said. "After that it is only a matter of time before we move the forces in."
Ronon moved unsteadily towards them and looked up at the tall and muscular man. Suddenly and for the first time wishing he was a girl.
"You can bring one personal item with you, Ronon," the man said and Ronon swallowed hard. He wanted to say he would bring his father, but knew that would not be allowed. He turned and walked slowly into his room and picked up a necklace his father had made for him for his last birthday and returned to the main room.
"Ready?" the man said and moved to the door.
"Be brave," his father said stopping him before he reached the door and pulling him into a hug, "five years will go by quickly."
With that he placed a kiss on Ronon's forehead and Ronon followed the man from the house. His jaw was clenched as he was lifted into the vehicle to be taken away and as they moved off he looked back at his home to see his father standing on the threshold and smiling proudly at him.
~~**~~**~~
Present - Age 28
He'd seen her every day since she arrived, it had only been a few weeks, but still he couldn't help himself. She was beautiful and every time he saw her he couldn't stop the voice in his head that sounded just like his father reaping the words of a description.
"Long black curls that ran down her back, dark eyes and a smile that would entice you for hours."
It had been the description of his mother but fit this new woman so well that it trapped Ronon in a dream-like state for several hours a day. As well as filling his nights with dreams that were not something he would repeat to anyone.
He wanted to talk to her, ask her out on what the humans in the city had called a "date", but so far the first part of this task had been impossible. Whenever he saw her she was with Elizabeth Weir. Granted he didn't doubt that Elizabeth wouldn't tease him for asking her secretary out on a date, but having someone there to listen would just make it twice as hard.
He'd heard rumours, murmurs that the she was the relative to someone in the city, but Ronon hadn't heard to whom she was related. He didn't care, he was captivated.
Since the Wraith war on Sateda, he had never looked at a woman with the lust in his eyes he knew he now held for this beauty. She had an unusual name, but then most of the people from Earth had strange names to him, but Nora was the strangest, yet simplest he had heard yet.
She had smiled at him a few days back and he must have looked the stupidest he ever had, gawping at her as he stared at her dark green eyes and bright smile. She had been alone then, but only for a second, he had been watching her talking with Rodney McKay only to turn and walk in his direction. He hadn't been quick enough to move, his heart beating faster than ever had frozen him in place.
Nora had passed him and turned a corner before he realised that now was his chance and he darted off. He rounded the corner and caught sight of her down the corridor walking along side John Sheppard.
He suddenly realised someone else had joined Nora and Elizabeth in the office. John was standing there talking to them and he gave Nora a bright smile that sent a wave of anger through him. He would not let Sheppard touch this woman, like he did so often off-world.
"Ronon?"
He didn't acknowledge the arrival of someone else in the area, he simply started, his eyes taking in the body language of John Sheppard as Nora stood up and showed him something on her PDA. He said something then that made both women laugh and Ronon wondered briefly which of them he had intended to capture.
He knew there was something between him and Elizabeth Weir and he'd held his tongue when one morning he'd seen Sheppard leave her private room. Would he be so heartless as to take two women at the same time?
"Ronon?" The hand on his arm made him jerk around and face Teyla with venom. "I am sorry to interrupt your stargazing," she said with a smirk. "Do you know what time the meeting is?"
"A few minutes," he said checking his watch. The reason he had arrived so early was because he needed a moment to compose himself. Nora would be present for this meeting and he didn't want to risk that if he had to speak, he would sound like a bumbling idiot.
"You like her," Teyla said with a friendly grin.
"What?" he said, badly faking ignorance.
"Nora," she said. "Have you actually met her yet?"
"No," he said and could feel the heat rise in his cheeks. "Looks like Sheppard's beating everyone to her though," he looked back to see the man grin at Nora.
"You have nothing to fear from John," she said and he turned a questioning eye on her. "She is his sister," his head snapped back to the office and he suddenly managed to see the likeness between them. "Ronon," she said quietly and he watched as Elizabeth got to her feet. "If you like her that much, you should do something about it, it is past time you took another mate."
"I can't get near her," he said a little too quietly. "She's always with Weir."
"I will find a way for you," she turned and walked away towards the conference room.
*
"Hello."
Ronon froze he knew the voice too well having practically stalked the woman since he first saw her. Teyla had obviously found a way to get her to him and alone, but he had to curse her for her choice of time and location. The smell of sweat suddenly intensified in the training room and he slowly turned to set his eyes on Nora Wells.
"You're Ronon Dex, right?"
He nodded almost dumbly and tried to find his voice, it seemed to have deserted him to the depth of his stomach which was churning dangerously at her closeness.
"I've been meaning to get to know all of the first team a little," she said calmly taking a few steps further into the room and Ronon became acutely aware that the door would close soon. "Elizabeth has pointed everyone out to me and I confess I've been a little nervous about talking to you."
"Why?" it wasn't what he wanted to say at that moment, he thought of words like "I'm harmless," or "I love you," but they seemed to join his voice in his churning gut.
"I, erm," she took a deep breath and looked around the room, "I kinda thought were cute when I first saw you, had to get my nerve together to come and talk to you."
"Oh," his mind ran though words his father would punish him for thinking, but he couldn't help it, she was right here with him. Alone.
"Teyla gave me some words of wisdom, said I should just get it over with and even dragged me down her."
He suddenly imagined Teyla standing just outside the door and became somewhat grateful when the automatic timer kicked in and the double door slid closed behind her.
"I've seen you around a few times," she paused and looked down and he realised she was just as nervous as he was. "Quite a few times actually," he smiled despite himself, knowing she'd known he was following her. "Where you trying to find time to talk to me?" She had taken a few steps forward as she asked this and Ronon shifted uncomfortably.
"No," he said harshly and couldn't hide the regret for the outburst on his face. "Sorry," he said just as shortly. "It's just that..." he swallowed a lump in his throat and tried vainly to clear it out.
"I've seen the way you look at me, Ronon," she said and he sighed and looked down. "Were you afraid of talking to me because I'm John's sister?"
"No," he shook his head but didn't raise it to look at her. "I haven't felt this way about a woman since the Wraith war on Sateda."
"When was that?" he looked up this time, confused by the question. He knew only too well that Elizabeth would have told her everything about the Atlantis flag team.
"I thought you would have been told that."
"I was," she said honestly and he caught the small smile she gave him. "But you seemed more comfortable with that line of conversation."
She took a few more steps and the now lingering smell of sweat suddenly lurched down his throat to become tangible. He involuntarily dropped his eyes to her lips and had to bite back a growl as her tongue darted out to lick them.
"Almost ten years ago," he said unable to take his eyes off her soft lips. She was only a few steps away from him. It would take him one long stride to close the gap, take her slim form into his arms and kiss her.
"Was she your wife?"
"No," he said. "She was going to be." Only John had ever asked him that question. He'd said less to his close friend than he did to this woman. "I loved her, but that was a long time ago."
A few more steps and Ronon suddenly brought his eyes up to her eyes. There was something there; hidden by a careful expression and it occurred to him that she didn't approach him slowly to make him comfortable with her. The conversation she started had done that job. She came closer for something else.
He swallowed at the lump again as she took yet another small step and he felt his breathing increase. His opportunity to actually ask her for a date was running out, it wouldn't be long before the radio in her ear would activate; she would be called away.
Without thinking about it, without even meaning to act he took a half step forward and lowered his lips to hers. She didn't protest or move away, she was as tentative in the kiss as he was.
When he broke away he was on the verge of apologising for forcing the kiss on her, but she smiled up at him and he heard the beep of her radio.
"Join me for dinner," he said shortly as her hand came up to answer the radio. Her face relaxed into another smiled.
"Come fetch me at seven," she said before activating the radio. Her smile grew brighter as she turned to leave the room. The door closed quicker for her on the way out and the second it was shut, Ronon sank to his knees on the padded floor.
"Thank the gods," he breathed a blessing no other Satedan would mutter.
~~**~~**~~
Future - Age 32
For all the things that had occurred in his life, good and bad, there was nothing as frustrating and nerve racking as this. He could remember the day he was drafted for the war, the day he returned home almost three years earlier than initially thought. The day the Wraith came and he watched his contingent slowly slaughtered.
All the pain he had suffered, the sadness he had felt, the anger at the Wraith and every emotion he could image from such an early age. Still nothing compared to the strange sensation of anticipation and fear that settled over him now.
He was going to be a parent. Better than that, he was going to be a real father, he would have no worry about his child being drafted or fighting a Wraith war like he had done. He wouldn't have to hide the child's identity from the people around him and above all, he had learned that he could show emotion and no one would think poorly of him for it.
Ronon paced back across the doorway aware that the eyes of Elizabeth Weir and John Sheppard were on him. But they could watch him all they liked. It didn't change the fact that he thought himself on the wrong side of the door.
Elizabeth had told him when this had started that on Earth, men could be in the room when their children were born, if both parties wanted it. He knew Nora wanted it, but he was bound by two separate laws he had learned as he grew up on Sateda. The Satedan's would never allow the moment of such indignity to be shown to man, except the husband, but he and Nora were not married. The Samalan law stated that the gods they worshiped would give the child an illness or disability should he see it before it was cleaned and comforted by the mother.
As he had in the last ten years taken to thanking those gods for bringing Nora his way, and keeping John Sheppard from hurting him for touching her, he felt it best not to overstep his bounds.
The door opened and a young and new female doctor stepped out and smiled at him. On either side of him John and Elizabeth got to their feet waiting to hear the verdict of the baby's sex.
"Congratulations," she said, "it's a girl. She's already clean and with Nora."
Ronon felt his heart stop; almost literally. He had a daughter, a beautiful little girl who he could teach to be as powerful and deadly as Teyla and as wild as he had been without fear. His feet moved without his brain's comprehension and he found himself standing at Nora's bedside looking down at the tiny face.
"What are you going to call her?" Elizabeth asked from just behind him and he couldn't think of an appropriate name; not that he and Nora had ever talked about names.
"Kyara," Nora said causing him to look sharply up at her and pulling the muscle in his neck. "Take her Ronon," she said with tears in her eyes. "Take our daughter."
He reached out and took the small delicate girl in his arms and looked down at her. Black eyes stared up at him for a moment before they drifted slowly closed and he smiled as she started her first sleep in his arms.