Building up for Romance chapter 4
Ronon was grumpy at dinner. Sheppard watched for a few minutes as the big man swirled the food around on his plate. Amazed that he wasn’t eating, Sheppard decided to pull out whatever was bothering him.
“Ok, out with it. What’s wrong with you?” Not beating around the bush, Sheppard just plunged forward.
Grunting, Ronon just muttered something about idiot women.
Liking where this was going, Sheppard prodded further. “I take it that you haven’t gotten anywhere with the doctor?”
Ronon fumed. Deciding to vent, he told Sheppard about their conversation earlier today.
Not able to help it, Sheppard began laughing uncontrollably. Getting strange glances from tables across the room, he found himself crying he was laughing so hard. He sobered once he saw Ronon was about to tear his head off.
“Ok, ok,” he calmed down. “Sorry, man. It’s just too ironic. And what is wrong with you? Why didn’t you say anything? It was a perfect opening.”
Ronon shrugged. “I don’t think she feels the same way. What’s going to happen if she tells me she doesn’t feel that way towards me? I know what she’ll do… exactly what she did for Lorne… feel sorry for me.”
Sheppard tried not to laugh again. The gears in his head began spinning. “I have a plan, my friend. And by the way, I think you’re wrong about her feelings. But let’s play it safe. I decided to have a movie night tonight. In my quarters. I’ll spread the word to who I want to come. Just show up and be ready to put on a show. Around 2100.”
Ronon, confused at Sheppard’s wording of “putting on a show” shrugged and watched Sheppard leave the table.
Sheppard found everyone on his mental list to invite: Teyla, Dr. Keller, Ronon, and Major Lorne. He made sure they would arrive a little later than Ronon. Grinning when he heard Ronon enter his room without knocking, he told Ronon to help him push the bed and turn it around so that more people could sit on it while watching the TV. It would sit three and he set up two more chairs in the room.
Making Ronon take one side of the bed, he let the others in the room. As Sheppard predicted, both Teyla and Lorne each took a chair rather than sit next to Ronon on the bed since there was room. Jennifer, last to arrive, looked fresh from a hot shower and had put on a cotton running outfit. She looked a little tired, but was obviously excited to relax and watch a movie. Looking around the room, she said hi and then moved to the only available seat besides the floor- next to Ronon on the bed.
Suddenly noticing that Lorne was directly next to Ronon sitting a few feet away from the bed, she got nervous and remembered that he thought her and Ronon were dating. Inching closer to Ronon, she whispered “hi” while keeping her eyes lowered. Ronon, finally tuning in to Sheppard’s plan, almost burst out laughing at his friend’s antics to get him and Jennifer together. Sheppard, who had plenty of room on the remaining side of the bed, grinned over Jennifer’s shoulder as Ronon caught on and began the movie.
Pretending to remember what she had asked him earlier, Ronon glanced at Jennifer and wrapped an arm around her. Mortified that Teyla was watching with interest, Jennifer had no choice put to rest her head on Ronon’s shoulder and snuggled closer.
As the movie played, she relaxed more and began to enjoy the feeling of Ronon’s closeness. This was a bad idea, Jennifer, she thought. Especially after when happened during our training session today.
By the end of the movie, Jennifer had moved her head to the top of Ronon’s chest and was quietly breathing steady. Glancing down, and feeling his heart tug, Ronon discovered she was sleeping. As the credits rolled, the others stretched and thanked Sheppard for the movie. Teyla shot an amused glace over at Jennifer.
“Didn’t make it, did she?” Teyla asked quietly. Lorne, for the first time, also noticed she was sleeping soundly with her arms around Ronon’s body.
“You’re a lucky man, Ronon,” Lorne smiled.
Both left while Ronon shifted Jennifer into his arms and picked her off the bed. Turning to grin at Sheppard, he said “Remind me to thank you one day for this.”
Sheppard laughed, happy to see his friend in a better mood. “Anytime.”
Ronon carried her slowly to her room. Adjusting her weight to use a code to get into her room, her head dropped so that her mouth was grazing his neck. Sighing, she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. He heard her say his name softly and felt her lips press against his throat. He almost dropped her from the shock. Heat spread across his body as he moved her towards her bed.
Laying her down on the bed on one side, he pulled the covers back on the other side so that he could cover her. Untying her shoes, he pulled them off of her and set them next to the bed. Pulling the covers around her, he found himself not wanting to leave. Brushing the stray strands off of her face, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. Sighing, he left her room and wondered if she would remember anything in the morning.
The next morning, Jennifer woke up very confused. Oh my gosh, she thought. I must have feel asleep last night. Embarrassed, she also vaguely remembered a dream she had, where Ronon had carried her off to bed and she couldn’t resist kissing him.
Wait a second, she thought. How did I get back here?
Frustrated that she couldn’t remember, she glanced at her watch. She was going to be late for her shift in the infirmary. Running a brush through her hair, she quickly pulled on her uniform and practically ran the entire way there.
The day went by quickly. A few electronical accidents as a team explored places they were unfamiliar with trickled in. Rodney came in with a splitting headache after drinking too much the previous night. Jennifer snickered at that. Sheppard came in with a nasty cut above his eye after sparring with Ronon. Surprised not to see Ronon walk Sheppard down, as he usually did whenever Sheppard got injured, Jennifer went over to talk to him while the nurse stitched him.
“So did you get anything to land on Ronon?” Jennifer teased.
Sheppard grinned. “Doctor. I see that you’re wide awake today,” Jennifer blushed. “Nope, I never had landed anything on him yet. But it won’t stop me from trying.”
Jennifer laughed at him and moved on to her next patient.
After showering and throwing on her work out clothes, Jennifer found herself nervous to face Ronon today. She wasn’t exactly sure what went on the previous night after she fell asleep. Deciding there was no use dwelling on it, she forced herself to open the door of the training room.
Inside, Ronon was practicing with a staff. He had already built up a healthy sweat. Jennifer almost drooled. What was coming over me? She asked herself while her eyes never left him. His muscles flexed with each movement as he continued his routine. Light headed, she sat down on the steps and tried not to disturb him.
Minutes later, Ronon noticed she was watching. “Hey,” he said. “Why didn’t you let me know you were here?” He wiped the sweat off of his body with the towel he had brought into the room.
Jennifer shrugged, pretending that she still had brain cells in her head.
Ronon beckoned her over and told her they would be covering balance today and how to use it to her advantage. He told her he was going to teach her how to send an opponent to the ground and possibly flip them over in the process.
Trying to relax, Jennifer laughed and told him she didn’t believe she could do it. But as he began showing her how to get someone off balance, she began to believe she could do this. As amazed as interested as she was, though, Jennifer couldn’t help feeling more attraction to him as his voice instructed her what to do and as Ronon’s hands kept correcting her stance or position.
Ronon smiled as he noticed her nervousness. It wasn’t fear, which he would have hated, but she was obviously nervous about their closeness. Trying to not get his hopes up, his confidence soared as he felt her hands shake slightly when he demonstrated the next move.
Jennifer, knowing she was a wreck, was glad when he told her that was it for today. Happy to be far away from him, she set up her medical instruments to teach Ronon how to help someone who broke their ribs in the field. Cursing herself knowing that they would have to practice on someone, she quickly decided to have him lay down and tried her best to give a medical lecture on how to wrap the rib cage.
Watching her above him, Ronon wasn’t listening to a thing. Her hands kept winding around him and he kept thinking about her kiss on his neck last night. Noticing she was looking at him strangely, he quickly tuned back in.
“Pardon?” he asked.
“I asked if you had any questions,” Jennifer reprimanded.
“Nope, that was a good lesson.” Ronon grinned.
Jennifer moved quickly to pack up her stuff, irritated she had made a fool out of herself today.
“Hey Jen,” Ronon said. “Sheppard invited us to play a game in the mess hall tonight. It will be kind of late, though, for you. I wouldn’t want you to fall asleep again.” He grinned mischievously, reminding her about the previous night.
Lifting her head confidently, she answered the challenge. “I’ll be there. What time?”
Ronon told her and she practically ran out of the room. For a few minutes afterward, he couldn’t help laughing at his good luck and promises that something may actually come out of this charade.
Sheppard pulled a game called “Imagine If” out of his bag. He lined up five chairs but used the fifth chair as a table for the board of the game. Sneaking the extra chairs out of the room before everyone arrived, he began setting up the game.
Everyone arrived who came to the previous movie night, except that Jennifer arrived late from an emergency in the infirmary. Assuring everyone that the person hurt was OK, she searched for a place to sit.
Lorne, seeing her dilemma, quickly offered his chair.
Ronon, two steps ahead of him, pulled on Jennifer’s hand as she fell into his lap. “Nope, she can sit here.”
Jennifer, turning red, sank against Ronon’s body as the game began. Everyone kept laughing as they read the cards and each voted on what each other thought. Ronon, in the meantime, did everything possible to tease Jennifer while she sat rigidly in his lap. He kept his arm snug around her waist the entire night. The only time it left its place was to fiddle with her hair or pull her closer to his body. Once, when everyone was laughing at something Sheppard said, he leaned against her bare arm and kissed it lightly. Almost jumping out of his lap, she wiggled uncomfortably and tried to pretend it never happened.
A few hours later, Teyla was able to get her colored game piece into the winning position. Congratulating her, everyone began to help pack up the game and move the chairs back.
Afterward, Ronon and Jennifer walked ahead of Teyla, Sheppard, and Lorne to her room. Knowing they were watching, he mischievously caught her hand. Pulling her close, he quickly kissed her lips and murmured good night to her. Under his breath before he released her, he asked “how am I doing?”
Confused, Jennifer looked up. Then understanding, she muttered something unintelligible and let herself into her room. Laughing, Ronon retreated to his own room.
Two days later, Jennifer arrived to their training session. They had put it off until later during the day because of a few doctors needing to trade shift times. Feeling better after showering, she began stretching and waited for Ronon to arrive. Today she wore shorts to practice in, the kind that bicyclists wore, and a old t-shirt from college.
She hadn’t seen him much since the night they played the game with their friends, but Jennifer couldn’t get her mind off of how she felt towards him that night. She was seriously developing a major attraction to him. Jennifer doubted it was the same for him. She knew he was only acting that way while they were in front of Lorne.
The doors opened and Ronon came through. Her heart skipped a beat in excitement. Crap, she thought. I’m hopelessly screwed.
Ronon said hi to her and sat down next to her to stretch. Talking about their day, they each exchanged a story or two about what happened and ended up laughing for the first 20 minutes of their session.
Standing, Ronon got down to business and went over a lot of the stuff they had already learned. He called it a review session, and she joked that she loved those in college. It was easy and you didn’t have to stress about learning something new.
Once it was her turn, she pulled up her medical bag and grabbed the long flesh colored bandage. “Ok, today we’re going to practice wrapped up an injury to the knee. Pretend like Sheppard was kicked during a fight and it caused his knee to bend the way it wasn’t intended on bending.”
Wincing, Ronon nodded. “Been there, done that.”
Jennifer sat down with her legs in front of her. Deciding to use herself as the dummy, she demonstrated how to wrap the leg tight enough and then use the silver clamps to secure it. Then, undoing it, she gave the materials to Ronon and told him to try it.
Ronon, untangling the bandage and trying to find the end, began winding it once around her leg. Lightly brushing her smooth leg, she felt his hand tickling her skin and almost began laughing. Trying to contain herself, she gritted her teeth when Ronon’s hand slipped and the bandage unraveled. Frustrated, he began again but this time tried to hold it in place. His hand must have brushed across the most ticklish part of her body and she jerked sideways and began laughing.
Startled, Ronon wondered what was happening. Laughing, she told him to stop and that it was tickling her. Grinning, he lightly wiggled his fingers behind her knee. She jumped and twisted around, landing a solid kick across his mouth with her foot in the process.
Gasping, she struggled to get up and found Ronon laying dazed on the floor, looking up at her. Laughter began to bubble inside her. “Ronon…” she began, snickering. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”
Helping him sit up, she sat straddling his one thigh and checked his mouth for blood. Satisfied that she didn’t find any, Jennifer found the tender spot that was beginning to swell. Leaning over, she planted a soft kiss on the injury.
Ronon, not believing what was happening, looked into her eyes. “Jen?”
She looked up.
“If you do that again and I get hurt, do I get another kiss?” Ronon asked, smiling.
Jennifer’s face exploded in a grin. Happy that he honestly wanted to kiss her, and not for the benefit of anyone watching, she pulled his mouth towards him and kissed him softly again. Ronon, taking advantage of his good fortune, wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss.
Sighing, Jennifer lifted her head. He was now cradling her in his arms. “When did this happen?” she asked.
Ronon grinned. “For me, months ago. You’ve been driving me crazy.”
She laughed. “I need to thank Lorne for his help, then, huh?”
Shaking his head, Ronon said, “Sheppard had a hand in it, too” and explained how he told Sheppard about her lie and how Sheppard arranged for them to be by Lorne to get things moving faster.
Embarrassed but grateful, Jennifer stood up and walked hand in hand out of the room with Ronon. “Let’s go get you some ice… so I can brag about how I finally landed one on you.”
Ronon grinned, picked her up in his arms, and carried her through the door.
The end.