Fic: Capital A (SGA)
Title: Capital A
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ronon/Amelia, Rodney, John, Teyla, Woolsey, Lorne
Rating: R
Word Count: ~3500
Prompt: Written for the Spooky Trope Challenge at stargateland. I used as many tropes as I could fit in, including the grand-daddy of them all!
Summary: Ronon finds himself protecting his teammates against a mad scientist even though he really wants to spend the day in bed with the woman who has marked his body and his soul.
"Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty." The smell of coffee wafted over Ronon, dragging him out of his deep sleep. He knew his own unique scent was calling to the woman standing beside the bed, could feel her desire for him even over the distance. Because he knew it would make Amelia growl with need, he stretched again, making sure to put pressure on his newest wound so that it split open. She wasn't the only one who could tease.
Sure enough, he could hear her hiss of in-drawn breath as the mug was set on the bedside table. When no body draped over his, Ronon finally opened his eyes. He was alone in the room. That wasn't how he'd expected this morning to play out. Normally she pounced as soon as he offered himself up, taking what he was happy to give. "Amelia?"
"Rodney needs to see you," came the strangled reply from the other room. That explained why she didn't take him up on his suggestion but not why she'd run away.
As Ronon swung his legs over the side of the bed, he realized how sluggish he felt. Not just early morning after a night of very satisfying love-making sluggish, but the kind where he wondered if he hadn't picked up some sort of virus on his last mission. They'd certainly gone to some weird places lately, searching for the ZPM modules that Rodney needed for his research. It was turning into one of those impossible missions, the kind that they'd probably die trying to accomplish. Still, they went because Rodney told them to and John seemed to do whatever Rodney wanted him to do, no matter how stupid or deadly. He should have known that planet was trouble but he had this urge to follow John wherever he led. It was like destiny. It was like Amelia sucking at his skin so hard that she made him bleed. Some things just felt right.
He picked up the hot mug, blowing at the steaming liquid to get it to the right temperature. The great thing about hanging out with Amelia was that he sometimes had a heads-up on some of the missions so he could go into the meetings with a composed face. It was working to his advantage for people to think he was always this calm and composed in the face of danger. "Any idea what he has in store for us today?" The only sound from the other room was a strangled breath but it was muffled, as if she was putting her hand over her mouth. A door slammed and he could tell he was alone. "So I'll take that as a no."
It didn't take long to get dressed although he took some time probing at the faint mark on his neck. This was the first place that Amelia had ever done damage to him but she'd never come back to the spot. In fact, all of the rest of the bruises and marks were hidden underneath his clothing. Some had vanished while others, her favorite spots, still seeped blood if he moved wrong. This bruise wasn't getting better, though. It was changing, something that should have bothered him. Bruises didn't start morphing into different shapes. This one started out as a circular shape but was getting enough angles it was starting to look like... "A capital A," he mused as he poked at it some more. "A for Amelia."
But that was silly. Things like that didn't happen, especially not to Satedan soldiers.
The rest of the team had already taken their places in Rodney's workshop. John was staring at Rodney as the scientist muttered to himself, his eyes glued to the two ZPMs that gleamed in their case along the wall. Teyla, the high priestess of the Athosians, sat quietly in front of a screen that she used to communicate with her village. It was quiet now but she often stared at if when there was down time, as if she was trying to get it to turn on with just the power of her mind. Personally, Ronon was pretty sure that she could turn it on with just the power of her mind but she didn't like to use it when Rodney and some of his other lackeys were around. She often made an exception for John and Ronon but the three of them seemed to share a bond. They'd been through hell and back with only each other watching out for their back. That would connect anyone.
From the area behind the bars, he could hear Lorne's team waking up. An arm, clad in a tattered military uniform much like the one that John wore, poked out of the bars but was quickly pulled back in again. The grate in the ceiling of their cell creaked open and the scuffles started in earnest. Breakfast was only getting started. From the sounds he could hear, probably one of the wild pigs that populated this planet. "The natives are getting restless," Ronon muttered as he took a seat next to John.
When he didn't get an answer, he took out his favorite knife and began to clean it. Seems John wasn't in a talkative mood but then, he wasn't often up for conversation. When he did talk, it was to remind them all of what Rodney had said or how they could better accomplish Rodney's wishes. Ronon's time in the Satedan military had taught him that a good leader didn't need to talk a lot as long as he got the job done and brought his team home alive. So far, John had done a pretty good job of that. He'd lost a few teammates along the way but who hadn't? All that Ronon really cared about was that he came home each night to Amelia's warm bed.
Rodney's attention suddenly shifted, every so slowly, toward Ronon. His nostrils flared. "She said she didn't feed from you."
"What'?" Ronon looked around the room to make sure that the man was truly talking to him. There was no one else. That glittering menace was directed at him and Ronon didn't like it one bit. He changed the way he was holding his knife so he could use it for defense, freeing up his other hand to grab at another of his secreted cash if he needed the extra protection.
"Amelia. When I asked her this morning if she had fed from you, she denied it."
"We had some liver and onions last night. That was the last time we ate." Or, rather, that he had eaten. He'd never seen Amelia eat although she sat with him for most meals and often brought him something to eat if he'd gotten home late and the Mess was closed. And she was always pushing to make sure that he was drinking enough water, like he couldn't watch out for himself. He'd never dropped from dehydration and didn't plan on starting any time soon. "I didn't have time for breakfast. Woke up late."
The scientist didn't answer. Instead, he walked over to a panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons. "Amelia, could I see you, please?"
Before Ronon had time to figure out what was going on, Amelia was standing in the doorway. His Amelia. She didn't look at him, only staring at Rodney as if he was the only person in the room. "Yes, sir?"
Rodney walked toward her, his head tilted to the side as if he was trying to find a flaw in her tense body. Ronon certainly couldn't see one. Even though Amelia wasn't a warror, choosing instead to do her part from behind a computer in the gate room, she had the flawless body of someone who knew how to hone her muscles. He'd put her through her paces a few times and she could fight, if the need arose. The thought comforted him. Not enough that he calmed his tense posture.
"You lied to me, Amelia. Did you think that I wouldn't be able to smell you on him?"
"But-"
"And you marked him. He doesn't even try to hide it. When I gave him to you, I told you not to mark him. Do you remember?"
"Yes, sir," came the whispered reply. All color had washed out of her already pale complexion until it didn't look like she had any blood in her body. If she swayed or showed any weakness, Ronon was ready to jump up to defend her but he knew better than to get in her way if she wasn't in need. He had no desire to have to find a new place to sleep tonight. It had been hard enough to fight his way back into her bed last time.
"And my orders were that I wanted him fresh for today's assignment. Is he fresh, Amelia?" She swung her head back and forth, her chin raising high as Rodney took a step closer. "Right. He's sub par right now. Even if I were to give him an injection or have Teyla work some of her mojo on him, he's not going to be ready in time for this fight."
Ronon stood up before he was even aware that he was moving. His knives flashed in front of him as he brought them up in a defense posture. "I can fight. Take one more step closer to her and I'll show you how well I can fight."
"Isn't that nice? The toy has a voice. It's so seldom we get to hear from our token food source." Rodney swung around to face Ronon, his eyes cold and calculating. There was more than the usual hint of madness in his gaze, though. This time, there was only madness. "The only way you're going to be any use for me today is if I were to feed you to Lorne and his men. They've been going a little mad with all the pig's blood they've had to ingest. They crave human blood and bone but I haven't had any to waste at the moment. Not until now."
As the first of Ronon's knives left his hand, flying straight and true as always, Rodney lifted his hands. One was pointed toward Ronon, stopping the knife in mid-flight. The other flexed out toward Amelia. Blue fire began to flicker around the woman, burning her with an icy blast of power. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and her back arched as her body tried to fight against the pain. "Choose wisely, Ronon. You can only save one person. If you choose to walk away with your life intact today, the knife drops to the ground and you are free." He pushed more power toward Amelia so that her screams became audible. "Or you can choose this woman you've come to think of as yours. This woman who feeds from both your blood and your life force. That means you forsake your life to me to do with it what I see fit."
"Don't, Ronon. Don't let him have you." Teyla turned from the monitor, her hand outstretched to her friend and teammate. "You can be free. You can leave this place."
John's eyes flickered toward Ronon for the first time. He seemed to struggle with himself, weighing his words carefully as if they cost him something. "You can't have both." His voice was rusty with disuse.
But that's where John was wrong. Ronon could have both. There was a loophole in this. There was always a loophole. Hadn't Tyre tried for years to teach him how to find the one path that would give him the best of both situations? As if called up by his extreme mental distress, the ghostly figure of Tyre wafted in front of Rodney. "What is his weakness, Ronon?"
"He doesn't have a weakness," Ronon muttered even as he realized what Tyre was getting at. "The ZPMs."
Rodney's howl of rage at the word was so great that the walls began to shake. Lorne and his team began to shake the bars of their cage, their moans adding to the noise. Teyla shrank back away from the room, her eyes intent on Ronon as if trying to decide what he had in mind. John was the only one who seemed uninterested in the explosive tension in the room.
Without taking his eyes off the scientist, Ronon changed the direction his knife was pointing. "You only have two hands, Rodney. Right now, that knife is still heading toward you. If you let go of it, it's going to find your heart. Don't even try to deny it because I know how true I sent that flying through the air. If you let go of Amelia, she'll rip you apart." He could only hope that she was willing to turn on this man who held such sway over her. The sort of control that had kept her from feeding this morning even though he had offered himself up just as he had every morning. And every evening. Even if he hadn't acknowledged with words what it was that she was doing, he had willingly given up his blood. His life force was still complete. Whatever Rodney thought, Amelia wasn't feeding on him like that. He would have known if he was in danger of losing part of his soul to the woman who haunted his dreams.
He waited for Rodney to decide. It took the man the space of two heartbeats to decide. The hand that held Amelia in stasis moved toward the glowing chambers, offering them protection. He had chosen to leave Amelia alone, knowing he had a strong enough hold on her to keep her from attacking him. Ronon could only hope that there was enough of a connection between the two of them that she might be able to fight it and come to his aid. He didn't have the time to wait on her, though. He was too intent on watching for any other weakness or flaw that he could take advantage of.
The knife that hung in the air wavered just the slightest bit as Rodney moved more of his power into the protection spell around the ZPMs. His attention had drifted to the only thing he really cared about, giving Ronon just the tiniest door to storm through. And storm through he did. One knife, two knives, three knives all came out of hiding and rocketed toward Rodney before either of them had a chance to blink. All four of the knives dropped harmlessly to the ground. Rodney began to laugh.
"You're too stupid to understand what's going on here today, aren't you? Too stupid to realize that you can't win. You'll never be able to beat me, Ronon. Why are you even trying?"
Ronon hadn't been listening to the tirade but he knew enough about evil scientists to know there would be one at the first sign of true rebellion. As Rodney lifted his head for the hearty laugh that followed his question, Ronon pulled out a smaller knife, one that barely had a profile, and sent it spinning toward John. With one cruel slice, it pierced the man's wrist so that the black armband he always wore fell to the ground. Another knife was sent across the room, shattering the screen in front of Teyla. A third plunged into the power box that controlled the bars across the cage, effectively setting Lorne and his team free to reek their brand of vengeance.
"Save yourselves," Ronon shouted as his first four knives came rushing toward him. There was nothing he could do to stop them as they found their marks. His only regret was that he wouldn't be the one to kill the mad scientist. But at least he didn't get this complete win, he thought to himself as his chest exploded with pain and his world went black.
A golden light tugged at him, drawing him back to his body with a jolt of power. It was a struggle to open his eyes but he was interested to see what heaven was like. All Satedan warriors were promised a trip there when they died in battle and he'd surely died in enough of a battle to gain him access.
His first glimpse of the otherworldly place was the blue of the iris pulsating behind a balding man with dark glasses. "Is this heaven?" he asked, his voice choking off as he started to cough. His chest hurt. It should haven't hurt if he was in heaven so he knew the at least part of the answer even before the man began to shake his head.
"No. This is Atlantis."
"What?" He struggled to sit up but a hand pressed him down again. Just when he started to fight it, a familiar face loomed in his vision.
"Easy, buddy." John's face was grimey, as if he'd taken a mud bath. He was much dirtier than Ronon remembered him being in Rodney's lair. "You took quite a hit from that blaster. You're not quite steady enough to stand up."
"You're alive." Ronon could barely get the words out, his extreme pleasure at seeing his friend again closing his throat.
John just rolled his eyes as Teyla leaned over his shoulder. "All thanks to you, Ronon. If you hadn't taken the Wraith fire, we would never have gotten through the gate in one piece."
"The cave man saves the day again."
The sound of Rodney's voice made him forget all his aches and pains and Ronon surged to his feet. "You!" A knife appeared in each hand. "You're supposed to be dead."
Rodney covered his head with his computer, cowering back away from the sudden source of danger. "Wha... what did I do? John, make him stop. Tell him it wasn't my fault. We had bad intel."
"Chewie. Calm down, buddy. It's just Rodney."
"But he-"
Another voice eased it's way through his cloud of anger. Ronon turned his head as Amelia stood up from behind a bank of monitors. She was wearing her hair up in a braided design he didn't remember her wearing before. Normally, she liked to wear it down so that it flowed down her back like a waterfall of silk. It was a good look with the impeccable uniform she wore but she looked tired and stressed. "Feed from me," he murmured as he rushed toward her, pulling her into a rough embrace. The kiss had none of the heat he'd come to expect from her and she was pushing at his chest instead of drawing him closer.
"Um, excuse me, but-"
"Amelia. I tried to keep him from hurting you." Hands were tugging him away from the obviously confused woman and he let them as he realized that there wasn't any passion in her gaze. Only fear. Of him. "Amelia?"
"I think we need to get you to the Infirmary. You've obviously hit your head." John ducked between he and Amelia. "I apologize for my friend. He's had a rough day."
Ronon fought against a wave of dizziness that had him leaning against John just to stay upright. "I think something's wrong with me." This time, when all went black, he was grateful for the refuge in unconsciousness.
Three days later, Ronon faced off with Amelia once again. It had taken John most of one day to explain what exactly had happened and it taken another for him to tell the dream he'd had while stunned. It had been so real but, as Rodney was quick to point out, completely a figment of his imagination. "I don't want a ZPM for myself," he assured everyone, including a skeptical Woolsey.
So the only person he needed to explain himself to was the one person he was wishing was still the woman from his dreams. He'd seen her from a distance a couple of times but John and Teyla had both agreed that he needed to give her some distance for the time being. He couldn't wait any longer, though. When he saw her walking by the infirmary, he stripped the few remaining wires that still connected him to the beeping machines and went running after her.
"I've heard the rumors," she admitted as he stopped her. "When you were stunned, you had some dreams. And I was... a part of them."
"Not just a part. Pretty much the whole thing."
Her chin lifted as she struggled to find the right words to say to him. "And I was a..."
"A vampire. That's what John called it. But not like the Wraith. Never like them."
"That's kind of..." He waited for her to say sick or disgusting but instead, she smiled. "Kind of hot."
"And you marked me. Right here." He pointed to the spot on his neck where the capital A had bruised his skin while he was stuck in the dream.
She studied his skin. "Looks like someone already has."
The wall they stood by was reflective enough that he could see enough of his image to see that she was right. When he'd left through the stargate on this mission, there had been nothing on that section of his neck. Now there was a dark bruise that looked a lot like a capital A.
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ronon/Amelia, Rodney, John, Teyla, Woolsey, Lorne
Rating: R
Word Count: ~3500
Prompt: Written for the Spooky Trope Challenge at stargateland. I used as many tropes as I could fit in, including the grand-daddy of them all!
Summary: Ronon finds himself protecting his teammates against a mad scientist even though he really wants to spend the day in bed with the woman who has marked his body and his soul.
"Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty." The smell of coffee wafted over Ronon, dragging him out of his deep sleep. He knew his own unique scent was calling to the woman standing beside the bed, could feel her desire for him even over the distance. Because he knew it would make Amelia growl with need, he stretched again, making sure to put pressure on his newest wound so that it split open. She wasn't the only one who could tease.
Sure enough, he could hear her hiss of in-drawn breath as the mug was set on the bedside table. When no body draped over his, Ronon finally opened his eyes. He was alone in the room. That wasn't how he'd expected this morning to play out. Normally she pounced as soon as he offered himself up, taking what he was happy to give. "Amelia?"
"Rodney needs to see you," came the strangled reply from the other room. That explained why she didn't take him up on his suggestion but not why she'd run away.
As Ronon swung his legs over the side of the bed, he realized how sluggish he felt. Not just early morning after a night of very satisfying love-making sluggish, but the kind where he wondered if he hadn't picked up some sort of virus on his last mission. They'd certainly gone to some weird places lately, searching for the ZPM modules that Rodney needed for his research. It was turning into one of those impossible missions, the kind that they'd probably die trying to accomplish. Still, they went because Rodney told them to and John seemed to do whatever Rodney wanted him to do, no matter how stupid or deadly. He should have known that planet was trouble but he had this urge to follow John wherever he led. It was like destiny. It was like Amelia sucking at his skin so hard that she made him bleed. Some things just felt right.
He picked up the hot mug, blowing at the steaming liquid to get it to the right temperature. The great thing about hanging out with Amelia was that he sometimes had a heads-up on some of the missions so he could go into the meetings with a composed face. It was working to his advantage for people to think he was always this calm and composed in the face of danger. "Any idea what he has in store for us today?" The only sound from the other room was a strangled breath but it was muffled, as if she was putting her hand over her mouth. A door slammed and he could tell he was alone. "So I'll take that as a no."
It didn't take long to get dressed although he took some time probing at the faint mark on his neck. This was the first place that Amelia had ever done damage to him but she'd never come back to the spot. In fact, all of the rest of the bruises and marks were hidden underneath his clothing. Some had vanished while others, her favorite spots, still seeped blood if he moved wrong. This bruise wasn't getting better, though. It was changing, something that should have bothered him. Bruises didn't start morphing into different shapes. This one started out as a circular shape but was getting enough angles it was starting to look like... "A capital A," he mused as he poked at it some more. "A for Amelia."
But that was silly. Things like that didn't happen, especially not to Satedan soldiers.
The rest of the team had already taken their places in Rodney's workshop. John was staring at Rodney as the scientist muttered to himself, his eyes glued to the two ZPMs that gleamed in their case along the wall. Teyla, the high priestess of the Athosians, sat quietly in front of a screen that she used to communicate with her village. It was quiet now but she often stared at if when there was down time, as if she was trying to get it to turn on with just the power of her mind. Personally, Ronon was pretty sure that she could turn it on with just the power of her mind but she didn't like to use it when Rodney and some of his other lackeys were around. She often made an exception for John and Ronon but the three of them seemed to share a bond. They'd been through hell and back with only each other watching out for their back. That would connect anyone.
From the area behind the bars, he could hear Lorne's team waking up. An arm, clad in a tattered military uniform much like the one that John wore, poked out of the bars but was quickly pulled back in again. The grate in the ceiling of their cell creaked open and the scuffles started in earnest. Breakfast was only getting started. From the sounds he could hear, probably one of the wild pigs that populated this planet. "The natives are getting restless," Ronon muttered as he took a seat next to John.
When he didn't get an answer, he took out his favorite knife and began to clean it. Seems John wasn't in a talkative mood but then, he wasn't often up for conversation. When he did talk, it was to remind them all of what Rodney had said or how they could better accomplish Rodney's wishes. Ronon's time in the Satedan military had taught him that a good leader didn't need to talk a lot as long as he got the job done and brought his team home alive. So far, John had done a pretty good job of that. He'd lost a few teammates along the way but who hadn't? All that Ronon really cared about was that he came home each night to Amelia's warm bed.
Rodney's attention suddenly shifted, every so slowly, toward Ronon. His nostrils flared. "She said she didn't feed from you."
"What'?" Ronon looked around the room to make sure that the man was truly talking to him. There was no one else. That glittering menace was directed at him and Ronon didn't like it one bit. He changed the way he was holding his knife so he could use it for defense, freeing up his other hand to grab at another of his secreted cash if he needed the extra protection.
"Amelia. When I asked her this morning if she had fed from you, she denied it."
"We had some liver and onions last night. That was the last time we ate." Or, rather, that he had eaten. He'd never seen Amelia eat although she sat with him for most meals and often brought him something to eat if he'd gotten home late and the Mess was closed. And she was always pushing to make sure that he was drinking enough water, like he couldn't watch out for himself. He'd never dropped from dehydration and didn't plan on starting any time soon. "I didn't have time for breakfast. Woke up late."
The scientist didn't answer. Instead, he walked over to a panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons. "Amelia, could I see you, please?"
Before Ronon had time to figure out what was going on, Amelia was standing in the doorway. His Amelia. She didn't look at him, only staring at Rodney as if he was the only person in the room. "Yes, sir?"
Rodney walked toward her, his head tilted to the side as if he was trying to find a flaw in her tense body. Ronon certainly couldn't see one. Even though Amelia wasn't a warror, choosing instead to do her part from behind a computer in the gate room, she had the flawless body of someone who knew how to hone her muscles. He'd put her through her paces a few times and she could fight, if the need arose. The thought comforted him. Not enough that he calmed his tense posture.
"You lied to me, Amelia. Did you think that I wouldn't be able to smell you on him?"
"But-"
"And you marked him. He doesn't even try to hide it. When I gave him to you, I told you not to mark him. Do you remember?"
"Yes, sir," came the whispered reply. All color had washed out of her already pale complexion until it didn't look like she had any blood in her body. If she swayed or showed any weakness, Ronon was ready to jump up to defend her but he knew better than to get in her way if she wasn't in need. He had no desire to have to find a new place to sleep tonight. It had been hard enough to fight his way back into her bed last time.
"And my orders were that I wanted him fresh for today's assignment. Is he fresh, Amelia?" She swung her head back and forth, her chin raising high as Rodney took a step closer. "Right. He's sub par right now. Even if I were to give him an injection or have Teyla work some of her mojo on him, he's not going to be ready in time for this fight."
Ronon stood up before he was even aware that he was moving. His knives flashed in front of him as he brought them up in a defense posture. "I can fight. Take one more step closer to her and I'll show you how well I can fight."
"Isn't that nice? The toy has a voice. It's so seldom we get to hear from our token food source." Rodney swung around to face Ronon, his eyes cold and calculating. There was more than the usual hint of madness in his gaze, though. This time, there was only madness. "The only way you're going to be any use for me today is if I were to feed you to Lorne and his men. They've been going a little mad with all the pig's blood they've had to ingest. They crave human blood and bone but I haven't had any to waste at the moment. Not until now."
As the first of Ronon's knives left his hand, flying straight and true as always, Rodney lifted his hands. One was pointed toward Ronon, stopping the knife in mid-flight. The other flexed out toward Amelia. Blue fire began to flicker around the woman, burning her with an icy blast of power. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and her back arched as her body tried to fight against the pain. "Choose wisely, Ronon. You can only save one person. If you choose to walk away with your life intact today, the knife drops to the ground and you are free." He pushed more power toward Amelia so that her screams became audible. "Or you can choose this woman you've come to think of as yours. This woman who feeds from both your blood and your life force. That means you forsake your life to me to do with it what I see fit."
"Don't, Ronon. Don't let him have you." Teyla turned from the monitor, her hand outstretched to her friend and teammate. "You can be free. You can leave this place."
John's eyes flickered toward Ronon for the first time. He seemed to struggle with himself, weighing his words carefully as if they cost him something. "You can't have both." His voice was rusty with disuse.
But that's where John was wrong. Ronon could have both. There was a loophole in this. There was always a loophole. Hadn't Tyre tried for years to teach him how to find the one path that would give him the best of both situations? As if called up by his extreme mental distress, the ghostly figure of Tyre wafted in front of Rodney. "What is his weakness, Ronon?"
"He doesn't have a weakness," Ronon muttered even as he realized what Tyre was getting at. "The ZPMs."
Rodney's howl of rage at the word was so great that the walls began to shake. Lorne and his team began to shake the bars of their cage, their moans adding to the noise. Teyla shrank back away from the room, her eyes intent on Ronon as if trying to decide what he had in mind. John was the only one who seemed uninterested in the explosive tension in the room.
Without taking his eyes off the scientist, Ronon changed the direction his knife was pointing. "You only have two hands, Rodney. Right now, that knife is still heading toward you. If you let go of it, it's going to find your heart. Don't even try to deny it because I know how true I sent that flying through the air. If you let go of Amelia, she'll rip you apart." He could only hope that she was willing to turn on this man who held such sway over her. The sort of control that had kept her from feeding this morning even though he had offered himself up just as he had every morning. And every evening. Even if he hadn't acknowledged with words what it was that she was doing, he had willingly given up his blood. His life force was still complete. Whatever Rodney thought, Amelia wasn't feeding on him like that. He would have known if he was in danger of losing part of his soul to the woman who haunted his dreams.
He waited for Rodney to decide. It took the man the space of two heartbeats to decide. The hand that held Amelia in stasis moved toward the glowing chambers, offering them protection. He had chosen to leave Amelia alone, knowing he had a strong enough hold on her to keep her from attacking him. Ronon could only hope that there was enough of a connection between the two of them that she might be able to fight it and come to his aid. He didn't have the time to wait on her, though. He was too intent on watching for any other weakness or flaw that he could take advantage of.
The knife that hung in the air wavered just the slightest bit as Rodney moved more of his power into the protection spell around the ZPMs. His attention had drifted to the only thing he really cared about, giving Ronon just the tiniest door to storm through. And storm through he did. One knife, two knives, three knives all came out of hiding and rocketed toward Rodney before either of them had a chance to blink. All four of the knives dropped harmlessly to the ground. Rodney began to laugh.
"You're too stupid to understand what's going on here today, aren't you? Too stupid to realize that you can't win. You'll never be able to beat me, Ronon. Why are you even trying?"
Ronon hadn't been listening to the tirade but he knew enough about evil scientists to know there would be one at the first sign of true rebellion. As Rodney lifted his head for the hearty laugh that followed his question, Ronon pulled out a smaller knife, one that barely had a profile, and sent it spinning toward John. With one cruel slice, it pierced the man's wrist so that the black armband he always wore fell to the ground. Another knife was sent across the room, shattering the screen in front of Teyla. A third plunged into the power box that controlled the bars across the cage, effectively setting Lorne and his team free to reek their brand of vengeance.
"Save yourselves," Ronon shouted as his first four knives came rushing toward him. There was nothing he could do to stop them as they found their marks. His only regret was that he wouldn't be the one to kill the mad scientist. But at least he didn't get this complete win, he thought to himself as his chest exploded with pain and his world went black.
A golden light tugged at him, drawing him back to his body with a jolt of power. It was a struggle to open his eyes but he was interested to see what heaven was like. All Satedan warriors were promised a trip there when they died in battle and he'd surely died in enough of a battle to gain him access.
His first glimpse of the otherworldly place was the blue of the iris pulsating behind a balding man with dark glasses. "Is this heaven?" he asked, his voice choking off as he started to cough. His chest hurt. It should haven't hurt if he was in heaven so he knew the at least part of the answer even before the man began to shake his head.
"No. This is Atlantis."
"What?" He struggled to sit up but a hand pressed him down again. Just when he started to fight it, a familiar face loomed in his vision.
"Easy, buddy." John's face was grimey, as if he'd taken a mud bath. He was much dirtier than Ronon remembered him being in Rodney's lair. "You took quite a hit from that blaster. You're not quite steady enough to stand up."
"You're alive." Ronon could barely get the words out, his extreme pleasure at seeing his friend again closing his throat.
John just rolled his eyes as Teyla leaned over his shoulder. "All thanks to you, Ronon. If you hadn't taken the Wraith fire, we would never have gotten through the gate in one piece."
"The cave man saves the day again."
The sound of Rodney's voice made him forget all his aches and pains and Ronon surged to his feet. "You!" A knife appeared in each hand. "You're supposed to be dead."
Rodney covered his head with his computer, cowering back away from the sudden source of danger. "Wha... what did I do? John, make him stop. Tell him it wasn't my fault. We had bad intel."
"Chewie. Calm down, buddy. It's just Rodney."
"But he-"
Another voice eased it's way through his cloud of anger. Ronon turned his head as Amelia stood up from behind a bank of monitors. She was wearing her hair up in a braided design he didn't remember her wearing before. Normally, she liked to wear it down so that it flowed down her back like a waterfall of silk. It was a good look with the impeccable uniform she wore but she looked tired and stressed. "Feed from me," he murmured as he rushed toward her, pulling her into a rough embrace. The kiss had none of the heat he'd come to expect from her and she was pushing at his chest instead of drawing him closer.
"Um, excuse me, but-"
"Amelia. I tried to keep him from hurting you." Hands were tugging him away from the obviously confused woman and he let them as he realized that there wasn't any passion in her gaze. Only fear. Of him. "Amelia?"
"I think we need to get you to the Infirmary. You've obviously hit your head." John ducked between he and Amelia. "I apologize for my friend. He's had a rough day."
Ronon fought against a wave of dizziness that had him leaning against John just to stay upright. "I think something's wrong with me." This time, when all went black, he was grateful for the refuge in unconsciousness.
Three days later, Ronon faced off with Amelia once again. It had taken John most of one day to explain what exactly had happened and it taken another for him to tell the dream he'd had while stunned. It had been so real but, as Rodney was quick to point out, completely a figment of his imagination. "I don't want a ZPM for myself," he assured everyone, including a skeptical Woolsey.
So the only person he needed to explain himself to was the one person he was wishing was still the woman from his dreams. He'd seen her from a distance a couple of times but John and Teyla had both agreed that he needed to give her some distance for the time being. He couldn't wait any longer, though. When he saw her walking by the infirmary, he stripped the few remaining wires that still connected him to the beeping machines and went running after her.
"I've heard the rumors," she admitted as he stopped her. "When you were stunned, you had some dreams. And I was... a part of them."
"Not just a part. Pretty much the whole thing."
Her chin lifted as she struggled to find the right words to say to him. "And I was a..."
"A vampire. That's what John called it. But not like the Wraith. Never like them."
"That's kind of..." He waited for her to say sick or disgusting but instead, she smiled. "Kind of hot."
"And you marked me. Right here." He pointed to the spot on his neck where the capital A had bruised his skin while he was stuck in the dream.
She studied his skin. "Looks like someone already has."
The wall they stood by was reflective enough that he could see enough of his image to see that she was right. When he'd left through the stargate on this mission, there had been nothing on that section of his neck. Now there was a dark bruise that looked a lot like a capital A.