fic: "Back Home" [Pt.10]
TITLE: Back Home - Pt. 10
AUTHOR: renisanz
SUMMARY: Settling down won't be easy for either of them. A sequel to “Making Up the Past.” Ronon/Keller.
CATEGORY: Romance/Drama
RATING: PG-13
WORDS: 1,749
BETA: journeyman07
SPOILERS: hints of “Tabula Rasa” and “Missing”
DISCLAIMER: I don't own 'em, but they're fun to play, not for profit.
NOTES: Someone guess pretty closely what the coded message was about. ;)
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Back Home - Pt. 9
The sounds of restlessness erupted all around after the red-lit sign flashed a symbol signaling that it was safe for the passengers to unbuckle their seat belts and move about the cabin. Ronon looked down to Jennifer, whose head was comfortably nestled against his chest. In no hurry to wake her, he sat back and watched as the people around him bustled about, opening the overhead compartments, hefting their baggage down to the cramped aisle.
The noise seemed to finally get to the sleeping beauty, for she stirred against him. He watched as Jennifer quickly sat up and hastily ran her fingers through her mussed hair, smoothing down the golden lengths. She unbuckled her seat belt, then placed her hands on the arm rests on either side of her seat, curving her spine forward in an awkward stretch. After a few seconds in that position, Jennifer relaxed and leaned back against her seat, finally looking up at him.
“You sleep good?” He asked, already knowing the answer, and therefore couldn't fight the smirk tickling the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah,” Jennifer nodded. “Wait. . .I was snoring again, wasn't I?”
“Not much,” Ronon shrugged and then leaned down to place a quick kiss on her lips.
Passengers had begun filing into the aisle, taking their places in the slow moving line to exit the plane. Ronon watched as Jennifer looked distractedly at the people.
“You ready to go?” Ronon said.
Jennifer whipped her head round to face him, meeting his eyes. She blinked. “Uh. . .yeah.”
The bright smile she flashed him faltered, and she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth.
“What?” Ronon prodded, leaning closer.
“Look. I uhm. . . sort of failed to tell my aunt that you were coming with me. . .”
Yeah. He got that.
Jennifer continued, “And I know it's not really fair to you-“
No, it wasn't, he thought, but remained silent, clenching his jaw as Jennifer continued.
“-but Jo is great, so it shouldn't be a problem, really, and . . .”
“Jen,” Ronon interjected, causing her to pause her ramblings.
“Yeah,” she chewed lip.
“You're right. You should have told her by now,” Ronon agreed. He was over his initial annoyance over the situation, realizing that she had been carrying an increasingly heavy burden over the last several weeks. “But,” Ronon continued, “I know it hasn't been easy for you. I just want you to be honest about us. Okay?”
Jennifer narrowed her eyes, shook her head in confusion. “Why wouldn't I be honest about us?”
Ronon just looked at her, not really sure how to answer her without it turning into an argument. He knew that it was absolutely a bad idea to have her upset right before she introduced him to he family. “If he even thinks that you've made his baby girl cry, it's over. And if her girlfriends find out, you're toast,” John had said. “Your bank account will definitely take a hit from buying 'I'm sorry' gifts to get you out of the doghouse.”
“Ok, I get it. . . I think,” she said finally. “Let's get our stuff,” she said, averting her eyes from his and then glancing up at the overhead compartment.
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Once they were off the plane, Jennifer was on her cell phone. “Hey, Jo? It's Jen. We're here. Just got off the plane. Wait . . . what? I'm sorry, I'm getting a lot of static. Ok, I'll call you when we get downstairs. Yeah, ok, bye.”
“Come on,” she said as she sped up her pace,”best we hurry and get down there.”
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Earth air ports were a strange thing. Ronon looked on in silent wonder as so many people moved about the facility. People going on with their lives, completely unaware of the dangers facing others on other worlds. It was easy for him to think that they were the lucky ones. But then, he had seen the news on the television box of the wars and turmoil that plagued so many parts of the world. He knew that Jennifer was fortunate to have grown up in a peaceful nation, country, but other members of the expedition had it different. He thought he remembered hearing of Radek's behavior during the Kirsan fever outbreak, how in his diminished mental state, he eluded capture, driven on by the fear of those who were put in place to protect him. However, they were the enemy in his mind.
Ronon was still getting used to seeing so many people in one place. Sateda was one of the more developed societies he knew of in the Pegasus Galaxy, and he guessed there might have been few hundred thousand people there when it was destroyed by the Wraith.
He followed Jennifer as she led them through the concourse. Like the infirmary back on Atlantis, this was her domain, her place of comfort and familiarity. He was was fine with letting her take the lead in a medical capacity, but he had to fight hard to let her be when they were in a less controlled environment. The incident in the Colorado airport still had him on edge as well.
“Ronon,” Jennifer's urgent tone cut into his thoughts.
“What,” he didn't stopped next to Jennifer.
“Would you relax?”
“What do you mean?”
Jennifer crossed her arms over her midsection as she explained. “I can feel you looking around and stuff. . .all tense and everything. You're making me jumpy.”
“Sorry, I'm just-“ he snapped his head around as a kid knocked into the pack on his shoulder.
“Johnny!” Both he and Jennifer looked in the opposite direction of the boy, to see a woman speed walking with a stern look on her face. Her expression changed to uncertainty when she looked at the couple. “I'm sorry. Excuse him.” She smiled briefly and then walked passed them, grabbing the little young boys arm and tugging him along with her. The woman spared one last glance toward Ronon and then leaned down and whispered something in the boy's ear before they disappeared into the crowd.
Jennifer smirked and looked back up at Ronon. “You were saying?”
“Yeah. . .just not used to all this, all these people,” he shrugged. Ronon also wasn't used to having to explain his feelings about anything, but he was learning that Jennifer liked to know such things. He realized that it wasn't so much as the number of people, but that they were all strangers. It was his nature to be on guard in unfamiliar territory.
“Oh,” Jennifer said as realization dawned. She relaxed her arms from their crossed position and lowered them to her sides. “Well, we'll be in a place with considerably less people soon enough,” she smiled.
She jumped as the cellphone rang once more. She hastily retrieved the device from her pocket slid it open. "Yeah," she said, not taking time for formal greetings, as she seemed to know who had called.
He shadowed Jen as she walked, nodding and making noises of affirmation in response to what her aunt was telling her. She stepped onto what appeared to be a staircase, except it descended automatically, carrying the rider to the ground floor of the airport.
She paused speaking, apparently listening to the person on the other end. Her brow creased with concentration as she nodded. It seemed Jennifer was having a difficult time hearing over the noise around them. After a moment, he saw her eyes widened, and a smile broke across her face. "That's really great to hear," she said.
She flicked her eyes to Ronon and then brushed a stray strand behind her free ear. She sighed, “Yeah, I said 'we.' Uhm. . .I have someone with me.”
Jennifer bit her lip. “Yes. . .it's kind of a long story. I'll see at baggage claim. Ok bye-“ Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Yes, it's a male someone.” Jennifer made a dubious face and then choked back a laugh. “No, he's not a body guard or military escort. Really. I'll see you in a few minutes.” She hastily slid the phone closed as her cheeks flushed.
Ronon couldn't' resist asking. “Bodyguard?” he prodded, raising a brow.
Jennifer laughed, finally. “Yeah. My family knows that the work I do is highly classified.” She shrugged, “She doesn't know it's not nearly as glamorous as the movies.”
“No Krispy Kreme,” Ronon stated. He hadn't really intended to make Jennifer laugh, but it was nice all the same. It was a sudden, surprised laughter, and her eyes were bright when she turned her head to regard him.
“Right,” she smirked.
When they stepped off the staircase-escalator, he recalled the term-Jennifer moved aside to let other people pass as she turned to him. “Well, she knows you're here now,” Jennifer said.
“Great,” Ronon mumbled.
"She also said Dad's doing much better," she squeezed his hand. “God, he gave me such a scare,” she whispered. “I won't feel right until I can actually see that he's ok, though. You know?”
Yes. He knew. It was when he, Sheppard and McKay had gone to find her and Teyla on New Athos. While surveying the area from the security of a cloaked Jumper, they had flown over the Bola Kai encampment, and a cold, hollow feeling tightened in Ronon's gut, a feeling of dread that only lifted once they had found the two women, alive and relatively well, considering their ordeal. Later that that night, back on Atlantis, he wandered into the infirmary, intent on seeing Teyla. The Athosian was fast asleep, but it was enough for him to see that she was alright. On his way out, a light on in the CMO's office caught his attention, so he stopped to check it out. He found Jennifer there, and he'd startled her, as usual. She had been crying, but quickly composed herself, going into her doctor mode, figuring he needed some sort of medical attention.
He didn't know why at the time, but he lied about his shoulder bothering him. No matte that it was midnight, and her shift had ended long ago. Jennifer, Dr. Keller, was intent on seeing to him, caring for him-and that had made an impression. He wished he could tell her, but it had been a lifetime since he'd had to express himself in such terms-since he'd even wanted to.
Ronon saw that Jennifer was beginning to blush under the intensity his gaze. He reached out, his fingers brushing her waist, as he intended to pull her close.
Then his phone rang.
Back Home - Pt. 11
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