fic- "His Woman" (Stargate SGA/SG-1, Sam/Ronon, NC-17, Complete) Part 2 of 4
Title: His Woman
Author: CJ aka WritinginCT
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/SG-1
Pairing: Sam Carter/Ronon Dex
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Non-consensual invasive medical exam, brief mentions of the off screen sexual abuse of a child
Categories: Het, Drama, Alien Abduction, Stranded, Romance
Disclaimer: I don't own the recognizable characters I'm just inspired by them.
Status: Complete 11/3/2010 24,758 words.
Note: Set somewhere prior to the "Midway" episode in SGA season 4. This fic involves members of both SG-1 and SGA, and though it is predominantly a Sam/Ronon pairing, the unresolved emotional feelings between Sam and Jack are hit upon.
Summary: They were stranded together against their will, but as they carved a life out of the wilderness, she became his woman because she wanted to...
Part 1 here
---------------
Jack O'Neill had aged ten years in the seven months Sam and Ronon had been missing. SG-1 had been recalled to Earth after four months, it had not been unexpected but it didn't sit well with any of them. Jack had informed, and not asked, the IOA that he was taking command of the Atlantis expedition. There had been some squawking that he ignored. The President wished him well, Paul Davis packed up his D.C. apartment, and Landry promised to look after his cabin. There was an unspoken undercurrent of understanding that if Sam didn't come home, that neither was O'Neill.
Most of the military contingent held their breath to see how Sheppard would react to O'Neill taking over. They were all surprised when there were no fireworks. John was almost visibly relieved to be able to hand over the big chair and get back out into the field, hoping with every mission that they might stumble across a scrap of information that would help them find their missing friends. He and Jack didn't always exactly see eye to eye in every situation, but there was a mutual respect and neither opinion was ever dismissed out of hand.
Ronon and Sam's quarters had been left as they were, the doors simply locked to be accessed by command personnel only. If anyone on the expedition ever saw O'Neill or Sheppard standing in the open doorway to either of those rooms, staring in and oblivious to the world around them, no one ever mentioned it.
---------------
Ronon grinned as a particularly loud gust of whistling wind hit the cabin. "Good storm."
Sam chuckled and surveyed the game board on the table between them. "Yeah. I think it's going to be a loud night. And at least a foot of snow."
She bit her lip as she concentrated and picked up pebble and moved it. They were playing a Satedan strategy game that Ronon enjoyed. And he seemed to enjoy it more the better she played and the more challenging their matches became.
They had been stranded for nearly eight months, and from Sam's best guesstimates, the planet had very similar seasonal patterns to Earth. It had been back breaking and grueling work with the limited tools they had available, but they had managed to build a snug, weather-tight cabin. They had surprisingly worked well together. Ronon accepted that Sam knew about engineering and support structures, and Sam had accepted that Ronon had seen a lot of huts and cabins in his travels and knew what worked and what didn't from a practical standpoint. Together they hashed out a workable design and divvied up the labor, and the resulting cabin was cozy with a large fireplace and chimney made from smooth rocks from the stream.
With the main cabin built, they turned their attention to stocking up firewood and hunting and drying game to get them through the winter. In between, they built some crude furniture and cobbled together a couple of games to help pass the time in the all too quiet evenings. They also spent an hour or so every day sparring to keep their defensive skills honed.
There were times that Sam had vague disconnects when she entered the cabin, with it's rustic look and bunches of drying herbs and strung on a vine drying apple slices, she felt transported back to some of the historical recreations that she had seen on field trips in grammar school. She had a hard time reconciling that this was her life now.
---------------
O'Neill approached the edge of the pier where Sheppard was sitting with his feet dangling over the edge.
Sheppard was drunk and working on getting drunker as he struggled with trying to open a new bottle of whiskey.
Jack plunked down next to him and took the bottle out of John's hands. "Give me that before you drop it." He deftly opened it and took a swallow before handing it back to Sheppard.
John took it and frowned at the bottle. "We don't leave our people behind, sir," he said emotionally before taking a swig from the bottle and passing it back to Jack.
"No, we don't."
"It's like they just vanished into thin air. Poof," he clumsily gestured with his hands, "How am I supposed to rescue them if I can't fucking find them?"
"I wish I knew, Sheppard, I wish I knew," Jack admitted wryly before raising the bottle to his lips and taking a large swallow.
A shooting star made its way across the night sky and Jack asked quietly, "Ever think about taking a jumper to go find them and not looking back?"
John turned and met Jack's eyes for the first time. He swallowed hard and admitted, "Every day."
Jack nodded once. "Me too."
The two soldiers sat in eerie silence and drank the bottle dry.
---
Lorne, Teyla, and Rodney helped get the two drunk men back safely to their quarters for the night.
Everyone on the city was keenly aware that it was the one year anniversary of Sam and Ronon's abduction, and the mood on the city had been somber all day. Though everyone still felt the loss of their missing people, most had grieved and moved on like they had with so many others they had lost. Some, like Lorne, Rodney, Teyla and a few others, still held out hope that they would find them, but they had also accepted that Sam and Ronon might not come back. O'Neill and Sheppard refused to accept that in the least, and their guilt and frustration was evident in everything they said and did, and nothing anyone attempted could alleviate them of either.
Lorne had expected something to happen with one or both of his commanding officers on the abduction anniversary and out of everything that he had planned contingencies to handle, them getting too drunk to stand without assistance was definitely the most benign.
---------------
They had been on the planet thirteen months by Earth reckoning. They had expanded their little homestead and planted beans and wheat with the seeds the handlers had provided.
Ronon had made them a couple of bows and they spent time in evenings by the fire carefully crafting straight arrows. Sam had played around with archery as a teenager and it all came back to her as they hunted together.
After a few disastrous attempts, they figured out how to cure the hides of the abundant deer-like animals that had become a mainstay for them.
Ronon knew that in order for Sam to have risen in Earth's military that she had to be a strong and self-sufficient woman, but he never expected to see her so rapidly adapting to the life they had made for themselves in the wilderness. She worked just as hard as he did, and never shied away from even the most disgusting of tasks. She laughed often at both him and herself, and she didn't hesitate to let loose with the best of Earth's curse words when the situation warranted them. She was tough and strong but she always carried herself with dignity and grace. Ronon had found himself staring at her on more than a few occasions when that grace really showed through and he found himself thinking that she would have made some man a formidable mate.
---
During his time as a Runner, Ronon had no interest in sex, his libido just gone. Once on Atlantis, in a place where he was relatively safe and happy for the first time since Sateda fell, his libido had returned and though he hadn't been ready to actively pursue a female companion emotionally, he did reacquaint himself with masturbation.
As the months went by stranded on the planet Ronon found his libido more active than it had ever been. He figured it was just because he was the healthiest he had been in long over a decade, the fresh air and outdoor living just good for his body. It wasn't until one evening at dusk, when he had slipped away from the cabin for a little privacy and settled himself down amid the mossy roots of a large tree and took his cock in his hand and stroked himself slowly that he realized that it wasn't the planet, it was Sam. A thousand little snapshots of her skin and her body played out behind his closed eyes. He bit back a groan as his release hit him just as he was envisioning Sam's breasts and perky nipples perfectly outlined in her sopping tunic after getting caught out in a sudden rain shower two days ago.
He felt incredibly guilty about it for days afterwards.
---
Sam had emotionally packed up her sexuality when she left Earth to take command of Atlantis, knowing that getting involved with anyone on the expedition had the potential for disaster. Being a career military woman, she had sort of become immune to having physically impressive men around her, but she found herself on occasion noticing Ronon's bare chest, or the way his shoulders moved when he was completing some daily task. Watching his hands that had done the roughest and dirtiest of chores during the day delicately carve small wooden chess pieces by night made her wonder what those hands would feel like on her skin. She wondered what kind of lover he was, someone rough and fast and demanding? Or someone slow and tender and focused?
One summer day she took a blanket out to a bright sunny spot a ways down by the stream and spread it out. She stripped and laid down on her stomach, pillowing her head with her hands, enjoying the sun. As the sun warmed both her and the blanket a familiar scent filled her nose. She had grabbed the folded blanket off of the shelf where they had been keeping them once the summer weather had hit and made them unnecessary at night. Ronon's scent was all over the blanket, he must have used this particular blanket last.
Sam found herself becoming very aroused. With a quick look around to be sure she was alone, Sam slipped her hand underneath her and her fingers into her warm folds. She flicked and circled and teased herself with her fingers until her hand was sopping. Her nipples were rock hard against the scratchy blanket and the sensation spawned the fantasy image of it being Ronon's beard doing the scratching. She struggled not to moan and mew as she went on to imagine his solid body covering hers and him sliding inside of her. Her release hit her as she imagined him slipping his arms under her legs and pressing in even further.
She was mortified when her breathing returned to some semblance of normal and she felt guilty about it for days.
---
Summer faded into fall and fall into winter. It was just before dawn and Sam was snuggled down in her bed when she heard Ronon rise and leave the cabin. It wasn't unusual, either he was visiting the privy or checking his game snares.
She roused a little when he arrived back a while later. She fully awoke when the strong scent of pine wafted over to her. She sat up to see Ronon standing there with a skinny little pine tree.
There was fresh snow in his hair and on his shoulders and he was wearing a big grin as he ticked his head to the side and said, "You did say today was your Christmas, right?"
Sam nodded, still not quite believing what she was seeing. Ronon was familiar with the Earth concept of Christmas, Sheppard having explained it long ago. Their first winter on the planet, on the night of their first snowstorm, Sam had happily shared some of her favorite things about the holiday, most notably the decorating of the tree with family and friends. He hadn't missed the wistful look in her eyes two days ago when she had mentioned that it was almost Christmas.
Sam got out of bed and walked over to where Ronon was standing and making sure the tree would keep straight in the little stand he had fashioned. Sam's fingers caressed some of the soft pine needles and she found herself unusually emotional. She swallowed hard and met Ronon's eyes. "You got me a Christmas tree?"
"Yeah," he answered simply as he let go of the tree to let it stand on its own.
Sam didn't have the words to reply. That he would make the effort to do this for her was emotionally overwhelming as she had been very homesick the past few days as Christmas approached. She didn't hesitate, didn't stop to think if it was a good idea or not, she just threw her arms around Ronon's neck and hugged him for all she was worth.
To say that Ronon was surprised would be an understatement, but he hid it well and awkwardly patted her back in response. When she didn't let go right away and he heard her sniff hard to avoid crying he broke down and let his arms encircle her and gently hold her close.
The moment drew itself out, and when Ronon felt her relax a little he said lightly, "I got decorations, too."
Sam giggled and sniffed hard one final time before pulling back and hastily wiping her eyes. "Really? Cool. Let me just go pee and then we can decorate it."
Ronon nodded and shrugged off his jacket and draped it on a hanging peg. "I'll make tea."
Sam quickly slipped her boots on and headed for the privy. When she got back, Ronon had a pot of water on the fire and a bundle of decorations that he had previously hidden somewhere in the cabin spread out on the table.
Sam looked at the collection of colorful dried seed pods and little bunches of yellow berries, there were also individual acorns that Ronon had carefully tied small pieces of vine onto so they could hang them. He had even made a star out of small branch pieces that he had painstakingly tied together then stuck in little sprigs of the yellow berries to outline the whole star. He would have had to collect and make all this months ago. She looked to Ronon's face and raised and eyebrow. "You've been planning this for quite a while."
Ronon's face was a mask, and not giving away any inkling of emotion, but his voice was gentle and sincere as he replied, "Since last winter."
Sam looked back down at the decorations and willed herself not to cry. She couldn't remember a friend or boyfriend even that had ever done something quite so heartfelt for her.
They spent the morning decorating the tree and they admired it as they ate a very late breakfast. They sat with another cup of tea and Sam smiled at the tree. "It's a beautiful tree."
Ronon gave her a playful raised eyebrow. She had said the same thing at least a hundred times since they finished decorating it.
Sam just grinned back looking happier than Ronon had seen her in months.
Later that night they had each crawled into bed and Sam was leaning up on her elbow admiring the tree one last time. Ronon chuckled from his own bed across the room. Sam turned her attention to him and said, "You know it's not really about the tree, right? It's about the memories of spending time with the people you care about."
Ronon rolled over and mirrored her as he leaned up on his elbow. "I know."
Sam studied his face for a moment in the firelight. Finally she snuggled down in the blankets and said, "G'nite."
"Nite," Ronon replied and flopped down on his back to go to sleep.
The next morning Sam got up first and found a surprise waiting for her under the tree in the shape of a large lumpy something wrapped carefully in a piece of soft deerskin. She crouched down next to it and ran a hand over it, trying to figure out what was inside.
She didn't hear Ronon get out of bed and approach her from behind until he teased in her ear, "You could always just open it."
She turned her head towards him and chuckled sheepishly. She carefully picked up the package and brought it back over to her bed and sat down with it in her lap. She gently unfolded the deerskin and found another amazing gift. His gift was both thoughtful and practical she thought as she looked at the winter coat along with matching leggings, boots, hat, and mittens that he had made out of deerskin and lined with soft warm rabbit fur. Even wearing all her clothes provided by the handlers, Sam had always been cold outside last winter. Now she had her very own snowsuit.
She ran her fingers over the precise and meticulous stitching on the coat, she couldn't even imagine how long it had taken him to make the coat, never mind the rest.
She looked up to see him standing there and staring at her apprehensively, like he was afraid she wouldn't like the gift or that he had done something wrong. With a grin she slipped on the hat and mittens and stood and stepped over to him. She gave him a happy hug that he impulsively returned. When she pulled back she clapped her mittened hands together and said gleefully, "It's going to be so nice not to be cold. Thank you."
His emotional mask was back in place, but there was a definite softness around his eyes as said simply, "You're welcome."
---------------
Last year, the holidays on Atlantis had been very quiet and subdued. This year, they were back to normal. O'Neill and Sheppard even forced themselves to attend Christmas dinner in the mess along with everyone else.
When Rodney of all people raised his glass and said, "To Sam and Ronon, " Sheppard left the party as quickly as he could without a word to anyone.
Sheppard spent the rest of Christmas day sequestered in the firing range, burning through paper targets and ammo as he emptied clip after clip.
---------------
The day had broken clear and beautifully sunny and warm after an intense snow squall had shaken the cabin all night. Sam and Ronon were outside surveying what havoc the storm had wrought.
Sam was decked out in her snowsuit, it had certainly made the past three months of a lingering and bitterly cold winter much easier to tolerate.
The new snow was heavy and wet and perfect for snow balls and Sam couldn't resist nailing an unsuspecting Ronon with one as he dragged a downed tree branch off of the path to their privy.
Quick as lightning Ronon scooped up some of his own and gave chase to a giggling Sam that was running for cover even as she formed another snowball in her mittened hands.
For a good hour the two of them ran and played and horsed around in the snow like kids, the sounds of their laughter echoing through the trees. Sam tried going further up the hill to get an advantage but she stumbled in the snow and that was all it took for Ronon to pounce and tackle her to the ground. Without thinking, he straddled her hips and captured her hands above her head, immobilizing the fat snowball she had in her fist.
Leaning down so his face was right above hers, he teased, "Drop it."
Sam snorted. "But I was winning."
"No, you weren't." Ronon's eyes were crinkled with humor, and his smile was wide.
"Truce?" Sam asked innocently.
"Drop it then we call a truce."
Sam's long hair hung below the edge of her hat and was fanned out underneath her. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and her eyes bright and shining with humor, and her smile was blinding. She was beautiful, simply beautiful, and he was so mesmerized at his sudden realization of that that he almost missed her reply.
"What's in it for me?"
Without debating in his head if it were a good idea or not, he bent lower and pressed his mouth to hers. He registered her shock, but as he deepened the kiss she was kissing him back just as passionately. He felt her hand relax under his, and the snowball roll away, forgotten. He let go of her hands and braced himself above her. Sam latched onto the front of his jacket and pulled him down closer all the while kissing him like it was the only thing she wanted to do.
His kiss had surprised Sam, but she wanted it, and she wanted him.
Ronon felt his erection growing and straining against his pants and he felt Sam below him squirming with her own desire. It was everything he wanted but everything he had fought internally with for months and he hated himself for being weak and giving in to the temptation. He broke the kiss and pulled back, his eyes sad. Without a word, he gently pulled Sam's hands away from his jacket and quickly stood and with a final broken look at Sam, turned and jogged off into the forest.
To say that Sam was confused was an understatement. "Ronon, wait!" she called after him and scrambled to her feet. When he didn't stop, she let him go, knowing there was no way she could ever catch him in the forest if he didn't want to be caught. With a heavy sigh and an even heavier heart, she turned and went back to the cabin.
---
It was well after dark when Ronon quietly opened the door of the cabin and slipped inside. He immediately saw Sam sitting on the fur rug in front of the fireplace wrapped in a blanket. She didn't look to the door or get up or even acknowledge his presence.
Ronon closed the door behind him and leaned up against it. His voice was low as he said, "I'm sorry."
Sam swallowed hard and replied just as softly, "For what? Running away earlier? Or for kissing me?"
"Both."
"Don't you dare apologize for kissing me. You can be sorry about everything else but not that." Sam's voice took on a tinge of anger.
"It shouldn't of happened."
"But it did."
"I wanted more than just a kiss."
"So did I."
"You don't understand," Ronon said in frustration.
"What don't I understand, Ronon? Talk tell me." Sam asked, her voice more gentle as she realized they might be getting to the heart of the matter.
Ronon stepped over to the edge of the rug, his fingers itching to play with the long golden locks Sam had streaming down her back on top of the blanket she had wrapped around her. He wished she would turn around and look at him.
"Earth people, they go from bed to bed all the time like it's nothing. That's not how things were done on my world."
Sam didn't say anything and sat quietly waiting for him to continue.
Ronon sighed and admitted, "I was... I was raised that when you lay with someone that it meant something. That the person was important to you."
Sam stood gracefully and turned to face him, keeping the blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes met Ronon's and she asked, "So what are you so afraid of? That I've become important to you or that you think that you're not important to me?
"Both," he replied with brutal honesty.
"You are important to me, Ronon. In so many ways I can't even begin to count. And I want to be with you. I don't know how to convince you of that."
"What happens when they find us and we're back on Atlantis? We go back to the way we were before?"
Sam smiled gently. "I don't think things between us could ever go back to the way they were before. I know I wouldn't ever want them to."
Ronon dropped his eyes to the ground, noticing that Sam's feet were bare and so were her legs under the blanket. The thought of Sam's long, bare legs sent a little flicker of arousal through him and he closed his eyes and swallowed hard.
In a whisper he shared, "I've only been with one woman."
He heard a slight rustling and opened his eyes to see the blanket pooled by Sam's feet. Her hands gently cupped his face and lifted so he would look at her. She was standing gloriously nude in front of him there in the firelight. Sam swallowed a little nervously and said softly, "I would be honored if you would let me be the second."
Ronon reached out and trailed his eyes and the backs of his fingers across her cheek and down the line of her neck and across her collarbone.
He looked back to Sam's face and nodded ever so slightly.
Sam smiled warmly and moved her hands to his chest, slowly unbuttoning his jacket and pushing it off of his shoulders. Slowly and gently she stripped Ronon down to his skin. Finally, he was standing naked bathed in the firelight, his hands at his sides, and his erection large and prominent between them. Sam reached out and traced the muscles of his chest, feeling him tremble beneath her fingers.
Ronon stood there letting Sam map his skin with her touch. Finally he couldn't take it any more and clasped a hand over hers and pulled it to his chest and claimed her mouth fiercely, putting all of his passions and emotions of the day into it. With no effort he scooped Sam up in his arms and brought her to his bed.
It was his turn to explore every inch of her skin, his mouth and his fingers finding every sensitive and ticklish spot, and his eyes tracing every scar she had earned throughout her career. She was a strong and beautiful warrior and as he moved over to cover her and she raised her hips to welcome him inside her wet heat, the realization that she wasn't just important to him but that he loved her hit him like a stunner blast.
They moved in perfect counterpoint, Sam matching him thrust for thrust. Sam had never had a lover that she meshed with physically quite so perfectly before and she took all that Ronon gave even as her hands tried to reach all the parts of him that they could.
Their bodies were slick with sweat, and taunt with need and craving release. Sam found hers when Ronon's mouth tormented her nipple and gently grazed it with his teeth. The intensity of it took her breath away and she arched and pushed and tried to get him even further inside of her. Her powerful internal contractions surrounding him brought Ronon right to the brink himself, and he hooked his arms under her legs and dug his toes into the bed for traction and let the additional depth and her waning spasms take him over the blissful edge of release.
---
Ronon made sure the blanket was covering Sam, she was almost asleep against his chest. His fingers were toying with a lock of her hair, enjoying the silky feel of it. He thought about Melena and tried to remember what her hair had felt like. It made him sad when he couldn't, but he realized that it was his mind's way of moving on and of letting her go. Melena was his past, and Sam his future, whatever that future held. Sam's breathing evened out and he knew she was sleeping a sated, restful sleep. He ever so gently pressed a kiss to the top of her head and in the barest of whispers said, "No matter what happens, I will always love you."
That promise made, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off.
The next morning Sam tried to get out of bed without waking Ronon, her bladder was screaming at her and she really needed a quick run to the privy. She should have known that sneaking out on him was impossible and she felt him instantly stir next to her. She stroked his arm softly and said, "I just need to go pee, I'll be back in a minute.
She quickly donned clothes and her coat and headed out the door. The bitter, sub-zero weather had returned in force and she made her privy run as fast as she could.
When she got back inside the cabin, Sam found that Ronon had stoked up the fire and added some more wood before retreating back to his warm bed. She practically dove in when he leaned up on an elbow and lifted the corner of the blanket next to him inviting her back in.
Ronon cuddled her close banishing the winter chill and when her teeth had stopped chattering he asked, "Warmer?"
"Much, thank you."
"Good," he chuckled and quickly flipped them around so he was lying on top of her. All hints of his previous reticence disappeared as he gently and playfully made love to her again.
---------------
Of all the people in the Pegasus galaxy that Sheppard might have expected to get information about Sam and Ronon's abduction from, Ladon Radim was not the first or even tenth person he would have expected.
After being carefully screened offworld, Ladon stepped through the gate to Atlantis.
Sheppard met him at the gate, his demeanor towards Ladon cool and not particularly friendly.
"Colonel Sheppard. I had hoped by now that I would have alleviated some of your distrust. I'm hoping that what I found might be able to bridge the distance between us that I don't seem to be able to."
Sheppard nodded, but didn't say anything and gestured for Ladon to head to the conference room.
They got settled in the conference room and Sheppard made the introductions between O'Neill and Ladon.
O'Neill canned the idle chit-chat after a minute and got down to business. "So you think you have something about our missing people?"
Ladon frowned a little, "I wish I had their location to share with you, but I don't."
Rodney looked up from his data tablet and snapped sarcastically, "Typical. So what do you have and what's it going to cost us?"
Ladon choose to ignore the bait and focused on O'Neill who was at least being civil. Ladon reached into the shoulder bag he was wearing and pulled out a piece of paper with the addresses of over a dozen planets. He slid it over to O'Neill.
"This is a list of seventeen worlds that have reports of abductions just like Colonel Carter and Ronon. No one knows who the abductors are or where they came from. They only seem to take the young and healthy and always in equal numbers of men and women. The abductions started about twenty years ago, and none of the people taken were ever heard from again. Except for one."
Jack sat up straight. "There's a survivor?"
"No," he fished in his bag again and pulled out a leather journal, "I had heard about the woman and went to talk to her."
Sheppard was furious. "You should have contacted us. We would have gone. They're our people missing."
Ladon took a breath and let it out slowly. He met Sheppard's eyes. "I wanted to make sure it was true before getting your hopes up. The person I got the information from hasn't always been reliable in the past and I didn't think you deserved to be tricked or lied to, not about this. I'm sorry."
O'Neill reached over and tapped the diary. "So what is this?"
"I went to speak with the surviving woman a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, I arrived on the woman's planet just in time for her funeral, she had taken her own life. When I explained the circumstances her sister gave me her journal in the hopes that there might be something in there that can be used to find Colonel Carter and Ronon and anyone else that was abducted."
O'Neill raised an eyebrow and his voice was respectful as he said, "I'm not going to lie to you, I wish you had come to us first, but thank you, this is the first real piece of information we've got. Have you read it? Is there anything helpful in it?"
Ladon swallowed hard, "General, she's very graphic about what was done to her, and it's very disturbing. I just can't figure out what the abductors' end goal is exactly, it just doesn't make sense. What I did find interesting are her sketches of what looks like symbols or foreign letters of some kind that she saw on the ship. Maybe you can find some match to them in the library of the Ancestors here on Atlantis. I've marked those just those pages if you don't want to read the rest."
Jack nodded and rested his hand on the diary, hope filling his chest for the first time in nearly two years. He leveled his gaze on Ladon. "Is there anything your people need?"
Ladon held up his hands. "I didn't come here looking for anything in return other than some good will, General."
"I didn't say you did. But I'm asking, is there anything your people need?"
Ladon dropped his eyes to the table, trying to think quickly, his people needed so many many things, but he didn't want to appear greedy or scheming. He finally struck upon something that shouldn't raise anyone's hackles. He stroked his jaw with his fingers. "Doctor Beckett had mentioned to my sister that you have better dental techniques and supplies than the Genii, would it possible to have access to some of that and perhaps some training for one our doctors who can then train others?"
O'Neill stood with the diary in his hand, he nodded and extended his other hand to Ladon. "I think that can be arranged. Thank you, Radim."
"You're welcome, General. For what it's worth, I sincerely hope you find your people and if you need men or help with a rescue, please let me know, " he turned towards Sheppard, "I'm serious about building that bridge, Colonel, I hope you see that."
Sheppard nodded and after a moment's hesitation, extended his hand, "I think the first plank just got nailed down."
Ladon smiled and shook Sheppard's hand.
---
O'Neill and Sheppard sequestered themselves in O'Neill's office with the diary, refusing to let anyone else read it until they knew what it contained.
They flipped first to the pages Ladon had marked, none of the symbols looked at all familiar although there was a hint of familiarity hovering around the edges of O'Neill's consciousness that bugged him.
The sketches looked at, the two men set their jaw and read what the young woman had written about her ordeal. When they were done, both men were a little pale and a lot angry. Jack went and opened up a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and a pair of glasses. He poured each of them a stiff belt and brought them back over to the table.
Sheppard had a painful, confused look on his face. He swirled the liquor around in the glass and took a sip. "So what do you think? Some sort of fertility tests? Breeding experiments? Ladon was right, I can't figure out their endgame."
O'Neill sighed, the woman's diary had gone into great detail about what her abductors had done to her, none of it pleasant. It was the woman herself that speculated that she failed some sort of fertility test as they kept sticking some needle-like probe into her ovaries again and again, a red light flashing every time. When she had been examined upon returning home, the doctors had discovered she was in fact, infertile, her ovaries never developing properly. After their testing, the abductors had literally dumped her on the closest planet to them. She had been lucky that it was a world with a Stargate and she knew how to get home. But in the end the trauma of her ordeal had shattered her mind and she wrote of her plan to hang herself.
"I don't know." O'Neill's voice was low and deadly and spoke volumes about badly he wanted to kill every last one of them.
O'Neill stood and when to the door. He gestured to Chuck who immediately came over to the doorway.
"I want you to dial Midway and tell them that I need Daniel Jackson here immediately if not sooner."
Chuck nodded. "Yes, General, right away."
Jack knew that the linguists on Atlantis were good, but he wanted the best, he wanted Daniel.
---------------
Sam was scraping a fresh deer hide, it was a task she had done many times before and though not a particularly tasteful task, it had never made run for the bushes and vomit back up her entire lunch before like it did today. She had been noticing other odd changes in her body over the past couple of weeks, bouts of lightheadedness, extreme reactions to certain smells, and her appetite had kicked into overdrive.
She wasn't a stupid women and the possibility that she could get pregnant had been something she had thought long and hard about the winter day she waited by the fire for Ronon. On the one hand, she didn't really want to have a baby out here in the wilderness with no doctors or medical facilities, but on the other, she wasn't getting any younger, and if they waited it might never happen, or even worse something could go wrong with the pregnancy or birth. And then there was Ronon, who had shyly admitted to her that he had always wanted a big family and to be surrounded by his children. In her heart Sam knew there wasn't anything she wouldn't give Ronon if it were in her power to give.
Sam stood and spat into the bushes a final time. She turned to see Ronon standing there, holding out a canteen and a sprig of mint for her to chew. The smile on his face was enormous.
Sam took the water and the mint gratefully and she rinsed her mouth and spat again before taking a swallow of water. She picked off a mint leaf and chewed it, glad to have the foul vomit taste out of her mouth. All the while Ronon was standing there grinning like a fool.
"What are you grinning at?" she asked a little grouchily.
"The mother of my child," he teased back, and though she wouldn't have thought it possible, his smile grew even wider.
"How did you know? I just figured it out for myself for sure about five minutes ago."
"I figured it out last week, after you got dizzy for the third time picking apples."
Ronon took a step closer and Sam asked tentatively, "So you're happy about this right?"
He pulled her into his arms and squeezed her gently. He pressed a kiss to the side of her head and said with his voice thick with emotion, "I'm gonna be a father."
---
Later that night they made love that was achingly slow and tender, Ronon taking particular delight in planting feathery kisses on her stomach above where their child grew in her womb.
Back on Atlantis if anyone had tried to tell Sam what a hopeless romantic Ronon was, she would never have believed them. But here in this place, she saw that side of him more and more. It wasn't just the obvious, like the bunches of wildflowers he would pick and leave for her without a word, and it wasn't that he would hike an hour out of his way just to pick her a few handfuls of the sweet berries she liked so much. No, it was how he would lie quietly beside her for hours out in the meadow just staring up at the stars, and it was the way he shared pieces of his family and life on Sateda with her, things precious to him, and it was even the way he had asked her one long winter night to teach him some of that "science stuff" she knew. He was a good man, solid dependable, honorable, with a wicked sense of humor, and if he had some rough edges, well that just added to his charm.
As they lie there in bed, Ronon resting his cheek on her breast as his big hand rested warmly over their child, Sam whispered emotionally, "I love you."
Ronon stilled on top of her and slowly shifted so he could looked at her face. The honest and simple joy Sam saw in his eyes almost made her cry. He moved up a little and kissed her softly, he pulled back a little with his mouth hovering above hers and whispered, "Love you, too."
Sam took his face in her hands and kissed him long and slow and possessively, claiming him in her own way.
---------------
tbc...