Fic: Solum Patriae (Ronon-centric Teamfic) PG
Title: Solum Patriae
Characters: Ronon-centric gen teamfic
Rating: PG
Spoilers: References to Sateda
A/N: Many thanks to arsenicjade and tesserae_ for the fantastic beta work. Additional thanks to saturnalia for Latin assistance for the title.
Summary: Ronon watches his teammates' faces carefully when they first see what he's brought them here to show them. He wonders what they were expecting that they're so very surprised and confused.
*
"Well?"
Ronon slants a look at Parrish. "Don't rush me."
"Take your time."
"Color's right," Ronon says, looking closely at the sample Parrish is holding up. He touches it with a gentle finger, then grunts and drags his finger through it with more force. "Feels right."
"So it's good, then?"
Ronon stands up straight and shakes his head. "Scent's off. Really off."
Parrish grimaces and sets the sample aside. "I warned you it would be."
He did. Ronon remembers Parrish telling him exactly that not long after Ronon strode into the botany lab, dropped one of his boots on a table, and asked who could help him.
"This isn't the first batch," Parrish goes on. "That one smelled like a chemical experiment. I tried some organic mixes after that but..." He gives Ronon a meaningful and apologetic look and Ronon nods.
"What do you need?" Parrish frowns and Ronon lifts his brows. "To get it to smell right."
Parrish blinks at him. "Well, uh--are you considering--"
"Yes."
More blinking and then Parrish clears his throat. "A larger sampling, some milk from an indigenous animal, and an indigenous clay-like substance."
Ronon considers the requested items and nods. "How much milk?"
*
Weir stares at Ronon for long minutes after he makes his request. She doesn't seem to know what to say, which is par for the course for their interactions, and which Ronon has gotten used to along the way.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yeah. Is it a problem?"
She shakes her head immediately. "No, no, not at all. It can be arranged." She turns her attention to her datapad, her fingers skimming along it efficiently, and takes a breath. "Day after tomorrow?"
"Thanks."
He's almost at the door when she asks, "Is this a team mission?"
"No. Just me." She's quiet and Ronon frowns. "Is that a problem?"
"More like a concern." Ronon frowns harder and Weir smiles. "For your...well-being."
"McKay's been monitoring. There's no danger."
"Not in the way you mean, no. But there is more than one type of backup your team can provide."
Ronon knows that, for probably the first time since he arrived in Atlantis. "I'm planning something for them. I don't want them to know, yet."
She looks startled but then she nods. "Day after tomorrow, then."
*
If Ronon understands these things the way he thinks he does, then what happens next is this: Weir tells Sheppard; Sheppard goes to Teyla; no one mentions it to McKay.
Two hours after Ronon meets with Weir, Sheppard stops him in a corridor. "So," he says to Ronon, his hands in his pockets, his lips staying pursed out even after he finishes the "o" sound.
Ronon waits but Sheppard doesn't say anything else; he just looks at Ronon, who finally rolls his eyes and says, "It's fine."
"Yeah?" Sheppard asks and narrows his eyes. "Is that 'fine' by your definition, or mine? Because, your definition of fine? Not so fine, far as I'm concerned."
Ronon's not really sure what Sheppard's definition of fine is, in all honesty. The man has one for himself but another for others. There's also the fine that pertains to members of Sheppard's team, which is--in Ronon's opinion, at least--far too high a standard for anyone in this galaxy to live up to on a good day.
"By Teyla's definition of fine," Ronon finally answers because she seems to fall squarely between Sheppard and Ronon on things like this and it's the closest thing to a true answer that Ronon can give.
"Well, okay," Sheppard says.
Teyla comes to Ronon's quarters an hour later. "Why are you doing this, Ronon?"
"There's something I want to do."
She considers him for a drawn out moment and he's not sure what she sees on his face but he has the feeling she's got it wrong. Either way, she bows her head.
"I wish you good luck, then," she says and Ronon bends down so that she can press her forehead to his.
He thinks about Satedan traditions, about how they would touch the very tips of their fingers together if they were on his world, among his people.
*
McKay wasn't told anything, which is why, Ronon supposes, he comes stumbling into the gate room, fully outfitted for a mission, and mumbling reminders to himself under his breath.
Ronon stares at him and McKay notices. Eventually. "What?" he huffs.
"Rodney," Weir says as she comes down the stairs. "What are you doing here?"
"Um," McKay says and looks around, finally realizing that Sheppard and Teyla are nowhere to be seen. "I saw the mission on the log. I thought--what's going on?"
"It's not a mission, it's...personal. Ronon's going alone."
McKay's jaw works wordlessly and Ronon braces himself when McKay takes a breath and does that thing where he sticks out his chin and tucks his hands behind his back.
"Alone. Huh." Ronon arches a brow. McKay sticks his chin out further. "That's remarkably stupid."
"Rodney!" Weir says sharply.
McKay and Ronon both roll their eyes. "Oh, come on," McKay exclaims. "It is stupid. But what does it matter? Go," he tells Ronon and waves his hand towards the gate. "Be traumatized. See if I care."
But McKay stands there, uncertainly, and when Ronon turns his back and makes his way to the Stargate, he hears McKay whisper, "And you thought this was a great idea why, Elizabeth?"
And then Ronon's stepping through the wormhole, leaving Atlantis behind.
*
Sheppard, Teyla, McKay, Weir and even Parrish are all standing behind the main control station when Ronon returns a week later.
His team is giving him expectant looks but Ronon goes directly to Parrish and holds up a large satchel, then jerks his head towards the doorway. Parrish nods and follows him out of the gateroom.
"Good?" Ronon questions in Parrish's lab after he unpacks and inspects what Ronon brought back.
"We'll see," Parrish says with a shrug. "I don't know if it will smell exactly right, but it will definitely smell less wrong."
And that's good enough, Ronon supposes, so he leaves Parrish to it and heads to his quarters for a long shower and a change of clothes before going to the mess hall.
He's halfway through his meal when McKay stomps into the room and comes right for him. "What were you doing going off with a botanist?" he demands to know, sounding insulted and astonished and maybe a bit horrified.
"What's the problem? He's a scientist. Thought you'd approve."
Ronon doesn't like playing stupid oaf to McKay's all-knowing genius, but sometimes it's fun to make him splutter incoherently. McKay's still ranting about soft science a while later when Ronon finishes his meal and leaves.
*
Sheppard stops him in the hall again, starts the conversation with another drawn out, "So." Ronon out waits him this time and eventually Sheppard furrows his brow and says, "McKay's on a rampage about you fraternizing with Dr. Parrish."
"I'm not fucking Parrish," Ronon says because sometimes it's also fun to put that look of painful awkwardness on Sheppard's face.
"God, no, that's not--I don't mean that kind of fraternization." Ronon grins and raises his brows; Sheppard glares at him and then gives him a pleading look. "Just tell McKay...something. Anything. Tell him you've developed an appreciation for flowers, I don't care."
"Not flowers," Ronon says, "gaen."
He walks off before Sheppard can ask any questions.
*
After a training session, when Ronon's wiping down the practice sticks Teyla let him use, he glances her way and finds her watching him with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"What?" He's expecting her to ask what he's been up to, or maybe lecture him about keeping McKay riled up, but she surprises him.
"You seem more at ease since your trip. I am glad that it helped you relax here with us."
Anyone else and Ronon would think they were trying to get details out of him, but he and Teyla have learned to be direct with their words to one another so he knows that she means exactly what she says, no more and no less.
"Here's a good place to be," Ronon replies and hands her the set of sticks. She smiles at him, soft and warm, and he nods at her on his way out.
*
Lorne flies Ronon and Parrish over to the mainland one morning the following week. They circle the land surrounding the Athosian settlement for over an hour before setting down in a spot that suits Parrish's needs and that seems fitting to Ronon.
They finish up late in the evening and the Athosians invite them to stay for the night. Ronon takes the opportunity to pull a couple of the Athosians aside and ask for their assistance, which they agree to give him. Lorne and Parrish mostly sit with Halling, drinking and talking.
When they return to Atlantis it's to find that McKay has expressed his growing frustration by assigning Parrish to some experiment or other that makes Parrish's face, still green with drink-sickness, turn pasty white.
Ronon was expecting McKay to start acting out and the only surprise is that it took this long. He might have also been surprised that Sheppard didn't talk McKay out of it, but not ten seconds after the Jumper docks word comes over the radio that Lorne has to report to the armory to begin a detailed inventory of all military supplies in Atlantis. Obviously Sheppard's just as put out about him asking Lorne to take him to the mainland as McKay is about him interacting with Parrish.
It's all very amusing to Ronon but he waits until Lorne and Parrish are out of sight before he grins.
*
"So, I'm curious," McKay says on M30-029. Ronon slants a look at him and then goes back to watching the tree line. "Are you holding something over Parrish's head, or did you simply threaten to break him in half? Because no matter how persistent I am, no matter what disgusting project that's completely out of his area of expertise I assign him to, he won't tell me why the two of you are all buddy-buddy."
Ronon snorts. "I asked."
"What? Asked what?" McKay demands to know.
"I asked him not to tell you."
McKay's eyes bug out. "That's it? You asked?"
"There has to be more to it," Sheppard says, coming up on McKay's left. "I made Lorne inventory all the used, dirty socks of the entire military contingent and he still won't tell me anything about the trip out to the mainland."
"You are both being very immature," Teyla says, disapproval showing in her tone, on her face, and even in the grip she has on her P90. "Ronon is allowed to interact and become friends with people outside of our team." She levels a stern look at them and adds, "He is not our possession."
McKay sputters, Sheppard gets another of those pained looks on his face, and Ronon strides ahead, lips curling.
*
Teyla's patience is tested the next week when she finds out that several of the Athosians are working on projects for Ronon, about which they'll tell her nothing. Teyla isn't petty and vindictive the way both Sheppard and McKay can be, but Ronon still avoids training with her for the time being because she's not above applying those sticks of hers to the same spot over and over and over again and considering it a "lesson".
*
There's a mutiny of sorts on MX5-991 after Ronon receives a package from the mainland. Sheppard and McKay are pointedly not talking to Ronon while having loud and meaningful discussions with each other about things like friendship, trust, sharing and "the evils of secret-keeping". Teyla simply ignores Ronon so completely that he might as well have stayed back on Atlantis.
Ronon's been getting less and less amused by their actions and reactions over the last two weeks and by the time the mission is over and they're all throwing themselves through the Stargate to avoid the arrows that the locals are shooting at them, his teeth are on edge.
After the post-mission exam Ronon leaves his team and goes directly to the botany lab. "When's it going to be ready?" he asks Parrish flatly, and he must look angry because Parrish, who has grown comfortable in Ronon's presence after all these weeks, flinches and stammers and takes two steps back before he answers.
"I, uh, don't know. You can--I mean, we could check on it?"
"We'll go now. Get what you need," Ronon growls. "I'll find Lorne."
He leaves the labs and makes it through two corridors before he falls to his knees and passes out.
*
The team is in the infirmary, then in quarantine, then in the infirmary again for a total of twelve days due to exposure to some kind of toxin on 991. Beckett gets them sorted as quickly as he can, probably more for his own benefit than theirs because only Teyla handles the confinement with any kind of good grace.
McKay yells and complains, Sheppard snaps at McKay and complains, and Ronon paces and growls. The medical staff has resorted to bribery and extortion within their ranks to determine who is going to have to deal with the team by the time Beckett finally releases them.
Two days later Parrish comes to the training room, where Ronon is working his way through a squadron of Marines. Ronon pauses, a Marine dangling from each arm. "What?"
"While you were in quarantine I went to the mainland." Ronon lifts his brows questioningly and Parrish adds, simply, "It's ready."
*
A week later, Ronon strides into the lab, takes McKay by the elbow, and propels him through the city and into the locker rooms.
"Oh my god, you've gone feral, haven't you?" McKay shouts, rubbing at his arm as though Ronon has permanently injured him. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Trip to the mainland. Get changed." McKay stares at him, mouth working silently, and looks like he's about to start yelling again, so Ronon steps forward, looms over him, and growls, "I could take Parrish."
McKay is digging through his locker when Ronon leaves to get Teyla, who simply nods when he tells her they're going out to the mainland, and then walks silently with Ronon through Atlantis.
*
Sheppard is in the Jumper bay already when they get there, looking surprised and suspicious.
"You aren't a med team," he says.
"Oh, how very observant of you, Colonel," McKay snaps, then glares at Ronon. "Why does he get tricked into being here, but I had to suffer the indignity of being hauled through the city like a sack of potatoes?"
"It is far easier to lure the Colonel here under false pretenses," Teyla points out to him. "He often shuttles the medical team to the mainland when they need to check on my people."
McKay looks at her archly. "I didn't see you being dragged around behind him by your hair, did I?"
Ronon snorts at the idea that anyone with a brain and a working sense of self-preservation would attempt to drag Teyla anywhere, much less by her hair. Sheppard seems equally amused. Teyla is giving McKay the look that indicates he is pushing her and should tread carefully.
"I'm just saying," McKay insists. "It's a little unfair that I was the only one manhandled."
"Could we maybe get to the part where Ronon tells us what's going on?" Sheppard suggests pleasantly but there's a glint in his eyes that tells Ronon he's actually a bit put out at the lack of information.
They all look at him expectantly and Ronon stares back blandly. "You wanted to know what I've been up to."
There are more questions than ever on their faces, in their eyes, when Ronon says nothing else. They look at each other, then at him, speaking silently in a complex language that only the four of them understand, and Ronon smiles slightly and makes his way to the Jumper when he realizes they're not going to barrage him with more questions. Yet.
*
The flight path that Lorne programmed into the Jumper takes them east of the Athosian settlement before looping them to the north. They come out from behind several large hills and coast down into the valley that is their destination, and Ronon watches his teammates' faces carefully when they first see what he's brought them here to show them.
He wonders what they were expecting that they're so very surprised and confused.
Sheppard glances back at Ronon. "I take it that's gaen?"
Ronon nods and gets to his feet. The storage bins under both bench seats are filled with supplies and he begins unloading them as Sheppard radios the city.
"Atlantis, this is Sheppard."
"Go ahead, Colonel," Weir responds.
"We've arrived, Elizabeth. I don't have any idea how long we'll be."
"Ronon arranged it with me earlier in the week. You're cleared for fourteen hours with check-ins every three."
"Wait, what?" McKay says sharply. "I can't possibly--"
"It's all been taken care of, Rodney," Weir informs him. "Zelenka agreed to take over the monitoring of the compressor you're testing and he'll be making sure the rest of your projects have sufficient coverage.
"And I suppose Major Lorne is going to be handling my office hours?" Sheppard guesses.
"He is. Enjoy your trip, everyone. Atlantis out."
McKay gapes at Sheppard. "You have office hours?"
*
The walk from the Jumper to the their destination is only a few hundred feet and they stop when they come to the beginning of the gaen clearing, which extends three inches above the ground around it and covers half an acre. It's cool and wet here, shaded by trees and hidden from the sun.
McKay's brow knits and then he kneels down to poke at the soft, green gaen. "It's moss," he says, shocked and confused, and Ronon doesn't tell him that Parrish said it was similar to, but different from, moss. "I don't understand. This is what you've been doing with Parrish? This doesn't make any sense."
Sheppard is toeing at it curiously, head tilted to the side. "I saw this," he says abruptly, looking up at Ronon. "It was growing on some of the walls on Sateda."
"Wait, is this why you went back to Sateda?" McKay asks.
"Yeah. Parrish needed some things to do this."
"But why, Ronon?" Teyla asks thoughtfully. "Does this have...meaning?"
Ronon isn't sure how he can answer that in a way that will make sense but won't require him to talk the way they're all so fond of. He thinks about it, wonders what to say, and in the meantime McKay gets to his feet.
"Of course it means something," he says impatiently. "Why would he go through all the trouble of doing this if it didn't mean anything?" Teyla stares at McKay and he blinks. "Oh. You were doing that--" He makes an odd circular gesture with his hand. "--thing, right? Where you get someone to talk. You're very good at that."
Sheppard's lips twist in amusement but smooth out again when Teyla looks in his direction, and Ronon still doesn't know what to say, so he decides on nothing at all, and steps into the gaen clearing.
*
Ronon takes his boots off and that's when the others cautiously join him, seeming unsure of what to do, or what's expected.
"This grew in my town," he says suddenly, stripping his socks off as well and then standing again. The gaen is plush and soft under his feet, giving in to his weight, though not as much as it did back home, where it had been deeper than could be measured. He and his friends would, at the start of each spring, after winter melted away, lay flat on their stomachs in the gaen field and burrow one arm down into it hoping that this year they would be tall enough, big enough, to touch bottom. They never were, though.
"It's moss; it grows just about anywhere," McKay tells him. He and Sheppard are standing off to the side and they seem content to let Ronon explain why they're here in his own time, his own way.
Ronon shakes his head. "It was different there. The field was big. Tall, too. We had to cut steps into it on the southern side to reach the top so that we could cross it."
"It sounds like it was a very prominent part of your people's lives," Teyla comments. She's sitting in front of Ronon, taking off her own boots, one hand absently petting the gaen. "Was it a trade item, as well?"
"No, but it was an...attraction. People came to our town to see it." He curls his toes, digs into the gaen beneath them, and then crouches down and inhales. He looks over at Sheppard and McKay. "Sit, take your shoes off."
*
McKay keeps his shoes on though he does finally concede to sit down after Ronon reaches up and yanks him down by his belt. He's sitting stiffly and trying not to touch too much of the gaen.
"Are we camping out?" Sheppard asks after rifling through the bags that Ronon brought from the Jumper. Ronon nods and Sheppard lays back and folds his hands under his head. He shifts on the gaen and sinks down several inches as it gives under him, conforms to his shape. He grins then and looks at McKay. "Okay, this is cool. It's like the memory foam they use in those beds."
Ronon doesn't know what memory foam is, but the comparison causes McKay to relax and the less tense he gets, the more the gaen conforms to him, around him, and he blinks in surprise, his mouth falling open. "Huh."
Ronon smiles and sprawls on his back, his fingers carving handholds into the gaen at his sides.
*
After the first check-in McKay insists he needs to eat, so Ronon unpacks the supplies and Sheppard and Teyla head off to collect wood for a fire. While they're gone Ronon uses a trowel that Parrish gave him to dig out a large circle of gaen about eight inches deep.
"How is it that deep?" McKay asks. "There's no way it should be that deep--or cover this large of an area--already."
Ronon shrugs and sets the clump of gaen aside. "Parrish said something about it being pervasive, but easily contained."
"What does that even mean?"
"I don't know," Ronon answers honestly. "He talks a lot but doesn't say much. Like you. Must be a scientist thing."
McKay glares at him. "He is not a scientist, especially not a scientist like me. How many times do I have to explain that to you?"
"Probably until he doesn't find your fits of righteous indignation amusing," Sheppard says as he and Teyla come back.
"Sheppard thought I was fucking Parrish," Ronon tells McKay, and, yes, the look on Sheppard's face is still just as amusing as McKay's indignant rants.
Teyla grins at him, not a smile, but a wide toothy grin, and Ronon finds himself grinning back.
*
Sheppard prepares the meal on the fire, using the grate that the mess hall staff let Ronon have. Weir insisted hamburgers and hotdogs were needed for an outing like this, and she went out of her way to procure them for him. Ronon's had both in Atlantis, but Sheppard swears everything will taste better out here, cooked over a fire. McKay supervises, and the two of them bicker in their odd manner, which has become familiar and somewhat reassuring in the year Ronon's been with them.
He and Teyla are off to the side, sitting in a peaceful silence that Teyla seems fine with. Strangely, Ronon is not.
"When I went back," he starts, and then pauses. Teyla waits patiently next to him, her arm brushing his. "The field was mostly destroyed, burned all the way down through. I used to think it was bottomless. That it went all the way through to the other side of the world."
He also thought, at one time, that the field was eternal, that it would be there for a thousand years, the same way it had been there for a thousand years before, according to the Satedan historians.
"Everything seems larger and grander when we are children," Teyla says softly. "Losing that perspective is a natural part of growing, maturing. Unfortunately, the Wraith cause many of us to lose it in a more tangible way."
It shouldn't make the painful spot in Ronon's chest ease to hear her say something that he already knew, but for some reason it does.
*
There are spongy round white things for dessert, also provided at Weir's insistence.
"Marshmallows," Sheppard names them as he hands everyone a twig. He spears one of the marshmallows on his twig and holds it above the fire, encouraging Ronon and Teyla to do the same.
McKay ignores the twig and simply eats the marshmallows as is. He holds out the bag to Teyla, then Ronon, who takes two, spearing one and eating the other. It's sweet, and the consistency is unusual, and he's not sure if he likes it.
"Did you camp out in the gaen on Sateda?" Sheppard asks him, twirling his twig and heating the other side of his marshmallow.
"I practically lived there in the summer months when I was younger," Ronon tells them. "Most of the kids did. We'd stake territory lines, play at being warriors, and stay up to all hours of the night. The town assigned sentries to the field to watch over us because we were always there."
"Sounds like heaven for a kid," Sheppard drawls.
"It was..." Ronon searches for a word to describe it and finally settles on, "free."
The marshmallow he's toasting starts to burn so he pulls it out of the fire and blows on it before eating it in one bite; it tastes sweeter than the plain one did, and it melts over his tongue, and he reaches for another.
*
When evening comes Ronon builds the fire higher; it's springtime and warm enough that they don't need it for heat, just for light. Sheppard and McKay tell him and Teyla about earth camping rituals, then veer off to other earth rituals. Most of it is incomprehensible, since they tend to forget to explain most things, but neither Ronon nor Teyla interrupt with questions very often.
Sheppard breaks off in the middle of speaking about a place called Santa Cruz, where he once spent a year and which is important or meaningful to him, judging by his tone of voice and the look on his face. His gaze finds Ronon across the fire and he frowns deeply for a long while.
Eventually Sheppard says, "The next time I go to earth on leave, you should come." He looks to Teyla and McKay, and adds, "All of you. I'll show you Santa Cruz. Rodney can show us Canada."
McKay stares at Sheppard, then at Ronon, his mouth twisting complexly. "Oh."
"I would like that," Teyla says, sounding interested and pleased, but she's looking at Ronon as she says it.
"Sure," Ronon says with a shrug, and Sheppard smiles.
"Okay. Good. Cool."
*
"There aren't any tents," McKay announces later, when they're all starting to get drowsy. They've had longer, harder days, but the heat and crackling light of the fire is lulling them towards sleep. "There aren't even any sleeping bags. Whatever the Colonel says, that is still the ground, not a disgustingly expensive Swedish sleep system, and I have a perfectly comfortable prescription mattress back in the city that I was manhandled from."
"We have slept on more uncomfortable surfaces," Teyla reminds him and he glares at her, but it's faint and it fades away quickly.
"Not willingly," he insists stubbornly.
"Calm down," Ronon says, getting to his feet and stretching. One of the large duffle bags contains his sword, and he unsheathes it and picks out a spot a few feet from the fire. He spears the gaen with the sword and goes about cutting out a large rectangular hole.
"Tell me you are not suggesting that we sleep in holes in the ground that are eerily similar to graves," McKay groans when Ronon hollows out the rectangle. "I have enough nightmares from this galaxy without adding 'being buried alive' to the list."
Ronon ignores him and takes several large padded pallets out of the bag. One of the Athosians was able to make them for him with materials he brought back from Sateda on his last trip. They're not the same as the ones from his childhood but neither is the gaen, and Ronon's starting to think that the differences have their own import.
The pallets are made out of the tanned hides that were prominently used in the military uniforms and it took Ronon half a day to dig out the entrance to the warehouse where it was stored. The drio hides have a distinctive scent and when he'd first smelled it again in the warehouse he'd been violently reminded of the death and destruction he'd witnessed before being taken by the Wraith.
Given that, he hadn't been sure that the pallets would be a good idea, but he's standing on fragrant layers of gaen right now and the combination of both scents reminds him of long hot seasons of freedom and nothing else.
*
As Ronon expected, once McKay tries the bed-down he appreciates it enough to stop threatening to sleep in the Jumper. That it took Sheppard strategically aiming and tripping him to get him to try it was just a bonus.
"What is in this thing?" McKay asks, making a little sound of pleasure as he burrows into the pallet that's been fitted into one of the cut outs.
"Ila feathers. I found a bundle of them the same place I got the hides."
"Is there any chance--"
"It's yours," Ronon interrupts him. "To keep."
"You are a god among cavemen, Ronon. Seriously. You don't even know what this is doing for my back, even that horrible spot at the base of my spine that nothing's ever been able to help. Not even the high-end masseur I hired in desperation on a trip to Sweden. I actually had to go to a chiropractor afterwards to fix the damage that incompetent goon did."
"Mine isn't all that," Sheppard says, and Ronon can hear him shifting. "In fact, it's poking me."
"As is mine," Teyla adds. "I believe this one is filled with the same feathers my people use."
"I only found enough ila feathers for one," Ronon tells them and crawls into his own bed-down.
"Why does Rodney get the good one?" Sheppard complains jokingly.
"He whines more."
"Hey!" McKay says but he sounds half asleep and the word doesn't carry its usual sharpness.
They slip into silence then, and not long after that Ronon hears the changes in Sheppard, Teyla and McKay's breathing that signals they've drifted off to sleep.
Ronon listens to the night sounds of the mainland and turns his face against the drio hide, rubbing his cheek against it.
*
Ronon wakes before the others and unpacks the last bag while he waits for them. Sheppard is first, as usual, and Teyla and McKay wake not long after, when Sheppard's feet slide out from under him on the dew wet gaen and he tumbles to the ground with a startled shout.
Ronon drops the bag he's just finished emptying and laughs, and he knows the image of Sheppard's wind-milling arms and confused face will stay with him for a long while.
"What? What?!" McKay exclaims frantically, bolting into a sitting position and staring around in a panic.
Teyla merely looks around, realizes what must have happened, and smirks.
"That wasn't very nice," Sheppard tells Ronon from the ground.
"I didn't do anything."
"You didn't say anything, either. Like, 'hey, watch out, the ground's slippery.'"
"You fell?" McKay asks, his lips twitching. "Oh my god, you fell."
"And I think I'm going to stay fallen."
"No you're not," Ronon says with a wolfish grin, and makes his way to Sheppard. The smooth wooden slides strapped to the bottom of his boots glide effortlessly over the wet gaen and Sheppard looks with interest at the second set of gaen-ecs in Ronon's hand. He catches them easily when Ronon tosses them, and before long the two of them are racing from one end of the field to the other, each doing their best to send the other off balance along the way.
They don't have much maneuverability, and Teyla and McKay are forced to move to the side of the clearing or be crashed into. They strap on the gaen-lits Ronon set out for them, which are spiked on the bottom and give them purchase on the wet ground underneath them.
McKay tells them, when they're done, that Ronon won every race, but neither Sheppard nor Ronon really cares. Much.
*
By the time they're finished with breakfast the dew has dried and the gaen is manageable in just their boots again.
"My people made these for you along with the pallets?" Teyla asks as she packs up the gaen-lits and gaen-ecs.
"Yeah. It's good work, especially since I didn't have samples to show them."
"We have some talented craftsmen, yes," she agrees.
Ronon collects the pallets and stows all but McKay's in the duffel bag. For McKay's there is a separate bag so that he can take his back to his quarters. McKay accepts it awkwardly, then clears his throat and straightens his back, looking stiff and uncomfortable. "I wanted to say thank you. For the pallet. I know what you said last night, about why you gave it to me, but I know that wasn't the reason. So, thank you for the...gift."
Sheppard teases McKay about how formal he is when he offers thanks, but Ronon appreciates that McKay takes it seriously, expresses it in a way that's markedly different from how he expresses anything else.
"You're welcome," Ronon says in response, rather than shrugging it away as he would with someone else, or even as he would with McKay on another day.
"Are we ready to go?" Sheppard asks, coming back into the clearing after having radioed in to Atlantis.
Ronon looks around and shakes his head. "Not yet." The gaen he cut out last night is still sitting in shaped clumps by their bed-downs, and he moves from one to another, filling in the rectangles again. He does the same with the circle he cut out for the fire pit, and then gets to his feet and nods. "Now we can go."
*
"What's going on down there?" Sheppard asks just after the Jumper lifts off.
"Looks like every Athosian kid from the settlement," McKay says, squinting against the sunlight coming through the front window. "And two adults hauling buckets? Am I seeing things?"
"No, those are definitely buckets," Teyla confirms and then looks at Ronon. "Would you know anything about this?"
"Maybe."
"The kids are all carrying gaen-ecs," Sheppard says blandly and turns his head to lift a brow at Ronon. "I'm guessing those buckets have water in them?"
Ronon tilts his head back and smiles at the roof of the Jumper. "Maybe."
*
When they return to Atlantis, Weir is waiting for them in the Jumper bay.
"Welcome back," she says, smiling at each of them before giving Ronon a questioning look. "Did your surprise go over well?"
"Think so. You'd have to ask them."
"It was a very enjoyable trip," Teyla says. "Thank you for sharing it with us, Ronon."
He nods in acknowledgement.
"It was nice," McKay agrees. "And you can consider my requests for an on-site chiropractor withdrawn, Elizabeth, thanks to Ronon and the feathers of something called an ila."
"They were more like demands," Weir drawls. "But I'll make a note of that. I'm glad you had a good time. You have two hours before the briefing for your mission tomorrow, so use them wisely."
Sheppard walks next to Ronon when they leave the Jumper bay, and Ronon warily watches him out of the corner of his eye. It isn't until they're exiting the transporter, McKay splitting off to go to the labs, Teyla heading for her quarters, and he and Sheppard ready to go in opposite directions, that Sheppard speaks.
"Hey," he says carefully, and he meets Ronon's eyes directly, steadily. "What you did over there? With the field, and the gaen-ecs, and, well, everything? It's..."
"It's what?" Ronon asks, and he sounds casual, but his stomach is tight and twisted.
"A good tribute." One side of his mouth curls up in an odd half-smile and he tilts his head to the side. "A living one, even," he adds, sounding both approving and proud.
Ronon exhales too evenly for it to be natural, and realizes that, huh, yes, that's exactly what it is.
.End
Solum Patriae - The soil of one's native country.
Previous Story: Vita Ante Acta | Next Story: Spirit of Place
Characters: Ronon-centric gen teamfic
Rating: PG
Spoilers: References to Sateda
A/N: Many thanks to arsenicjade and tesserae_ for the fantastic beta work. Additional thanks to saturnalia for Latin assistance for the title.
Summary: Ronon watches his teammates' faces carefully when they first see what he's brought them here to show them. He wonders what they were expecting that they're so very surprised and confused.
*
"Well?"
Ronon slants a look at Parrish. "Don't rush me."
"Take your time."
"Color's right," Ronon says, looking closely at the sample Parrish is holding up. He touches it with a gentle finger, then grunts and drags his finger through it with more force. "Feels right."
"So it's good, then?"
Ronon stands up straight and shakes his head. "Scent's off. Really off."
Parrish grimaces and sets the sample aside. "I warned you it would be."
He did. Ronon remembers Parrish telling him exactly that not long after Ronon strode into the botany lab, dropped one of his boots on a table, and asked who could help him.
"This isn't the first batch," Parrish goes on. "That one smelled like a chemical experiment. I tried some organic mixes after that but..." He gives Ronon a meaningful and apologetic look and Ronon nods.
"What do you need?" Parrish frowns and Ronon lifts his brows. "To get it to smell right."
Parrish blinks at him. "Well, uh--are you considering--"
"Yes."
More blinking and then Parrish clears his throat. "A larger sampling, some milk from an indigenous animal, and an indigenous clay-like substance."
Ronon considers the requested items and nods. "How much milk?"
*
Weir stares at Ronon for long minutes after he makes his request. She doesn't seem to know what to say, which is par for the course for their interactions, and which Ronon has gotten used to along the way.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yeah. Is it a problem?"
She shakes her head immediately. "No, no, not at all. It can be arranged." She turns her attention to her datapad, her fingers skimming along it efficiently, and takes a breath. "Day after tomorrow?"
"Thanks."
He's almost at the door when she asks, "Is this a team mission?"
"No. Just me." She's quiet and Ronon frowns. "Is that a problem?"
"More like a concern." Ronon frowns harder and Weir smiles. "For your...well-being."
"McKay's been monitoring. There's no danger."
"Not in the way you mean, no. But there is more than one type of backup your team can provide."
Ronon knows that, for probably the first time since he arrived in Atlantis. "I'm planning something for them. I don't want them to know, yet."
She looks startled but then she nods. "Day after tomorrow, then."
*
If Ronon understands these things the way he thinks he does, then what happens next is this: Weir tells Sheppard; Sheppard goes to Teyla; no one mentions it to McKay.
Two hours after Ronon meets with Weir, Sheppard stops him in a corridor. "So," he says to Ronon, his hands in his pockets, his lips staying pursed out even after he finishes the "o" sound.
Ronon waits but Sheppard doesn't say anything else; he just looks at Ronon, who finally rolls his eyes and says, "It's fine."
"Yeah?" Sheppard asks and narrows his eyes. "Is that 'fine' by your definition, or mine? Because, your definition of fine? Not so fine, far as I'm concerned."
Ronon's not really sure what Sheppard's definition of fine is, in all honesty. The man has one for himself but another for others. There's also the fine that pertains to members of Sheppard's team, which is--in Ronon's opinion, at least--far too high a standard for anyone in this galaxy to live up to on a good day.
"By Teyla's definition of fine," Ronon finally answers because she seems to fall squarely between Sheppard and Ronon on things like this and it's the closest thing to a true answer that Ronon can give.
"Well, okay," Sheppard says.
Teyla comes to Ronon's quarters an hour later. "Why are you doing this, Ronon?"
"There's something I want to do."
She considers him for a drawn out moment and he's not sure what she sees on his face but he has the feeling she's got it wrong. Either way, she bows her head.
"I wish you good luck, then," she says and Ronon bends down so that she can press her forehead to his.
He thinks about Satedan traditions, about how they would touch the very tips of their fingers together if they were on his world, among his people.
*
McKay wasn't told anything, which is why, Ronon supposes, he comes stumbling into the gate room, fully outfitted for a mission, and mumbling reminders to himself under his breath.
Ronon stares at him and McKay notices. Eventually. "What?" he huffs.
"Rodney," Weir says as she comes down the stairs. "What are you doing here?"
"Um," McKay says and looks around, finally realizing that Sheppard and Teyla are nowhere to be seen. "I saw the mission on the log. I thought--what's going on?"
"It's not a mission, it's...personal. Ronon's going alone."
McKay's jaw works wordlessly and Ronon braces himself when McKay takes a breath and does that thing where he sticks out his chin and tucks his hands behind his back.
"Alone. Huh." Ronon arches a brow. McKay sticks his chin out further. "That's remarkably stupid."
"Rodney!" Weir says sharply.
McKay and Ronon both roll their eyes. "Oh, come on," McKay exclaims. "It is stupid. But what does it matter? Go," he tells Ronon and waves his hand towards the gate. "Be traumatized. See if I care."
But McKay stands there, uncertainly, and when Ronon turns his back and makes his way to the Stargate, he hears McKay whisper, "And you thought this was a great idea why, Elizabeth?"
And then Ronon's stepping through the wormhole, leaving Atlantis behind.
*
Sheppard, Teyla, McKay, Weir and even Parrish are all standing behind the main control station when Ronon returns a week later.
His team is giving him expectant looks but Ronon goes directly to Parrish and holds up a large satchel, then jerks his head towards the doorway. Parrish nods and follows him out of the gateroom.
"Good?" Ronon questions in Parrish's lab after he unpacks and inspects what Ronon brought back.
"We'll see," Parrish says with a shrug. "I don't know if it will smell exactly right, but it will definitely smell less wrong."
And that's good enough, Ronon supposes, so he leaves Parrish to it and heads to his quarters for a long shower and a change of clothes before going to the mess hall.
He's halfway through his meal when McKay stomps into the room and comes right for him. "What were you doing going off with a botanist?" he demands to know, sounding insulted and astonished and maybe a bit horrified.
"What's the problem? He's a scientist. Thought you'd approve."
Ronon doesn't like playing stupid oaf to McKay's all-knowing genius, but sometimes it's fun to make him splutter incoherently. McKay's still ranting about soft science a while later when Ronon finishes his meal and leaves.
*
Sheppard stops him in the hall again, starts the conversation with another drawn out, "So." Ronon out waits him this time and eventually Sheppard furrows his brow and says, "McKay's on a rampage about you fraternizing with Dr. Parrish."
"I'm not fucking Parrish," Ronon says because sometimes it's also fun to put that look of painful awkwardness on Sheppard's face.
"God, no, that's not--I don't mean that kind of fraternization." Ronon grins and raises his brows; Sheppard glares at him and then gives him a pleading look. "Just tell McKay...something. Anything. Tell him you've developed an appreciation for flowers, I don't care."
"Not flowers," Ronon says, "gaen."
He walks off before Sheppard can ask any questions.
*
After a training session, when Ronon's wiping down the practice sticks Teyla let him use, he glances her way and finds her watching him with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"What?" He's expecting her to ask what he's been up to, or maybe lecture him about keeping McKay riled up, but she surprises him.
"You seem more at ease since your trip. I am glad that it helped you relax here with us."
Anyone else and Ronon would think they were trying to get details out of him, but he and Teyla have learned to be direct with their words to one another so he knows that she means exactly what she says, no more and no less.
"Here's a good place to be," Ronon replies and hands her the set of sticks. She smiles at him, soft and warm, and he nods at her on his way out.
*
Lorne flies Ronon and Parrish over to the mainland one morning the following week. They circle the land surrounding the Athosian settlement for over an hour before setting down in a spot that suits Parrish's needs and that seems fitting to Ronon.
They finish up late in the evening and the Athosians invite them to stay for the night. Ronon takes the opportunity to pull a couple of the Athosians aside and ask for their assistance, which they agree to give him. Lorne and Parrish mostly sit with Halling, drinking and talking.
When they return to Atlantis it's to find that McKay has expressed his growing frustration by assigning Parrish to some experiment or other that makes Parrish's face, still green with drink-sickness, turn pasty white.
Ronon was expecting McKay to start acting out and the only surprise is that it took this long. He might have also been surprised that Sheppard didn't talk McKay out of it, but not ten seconds after the Jumper docks word comes over the radio that Lorne has to report to the armory to begin a detailed inventory of all military supplies in Atlantis. Obviously Sheppard's just as put out about him asking Lorne to take him to the mainland as McKay is about him interacting with Parrish.
It's all very amusing to Ronon but he waits until Lorne and Parrish are out of sight before he grins.
*
"So, I'm curious," McKay says on M30-029. Ronon slants a look at him and then goes back to watching the tree line. "Are you holding something over Parrish's head, or did you simply threaten to break him in half? Because no matter how persistent I am, no matter what disgusting project that's completely out of his area of expertise I assign him to, he won't tell me why the two of you are all buddy-buddy."
Ronon snorts. "I asked."
"What? Asked what?" McKay demands to know.
"I asked him not to tell you."
McKay's eyes bug out. "That's it? You asked?"
"There has to be more to it," Sheppard says, coming up on McKay's left. "I made Lorne inventory all the used, dirty socks of the entire military contingent and he still won't tell me anything about the trip out to the mainland."
"You are both being very immature," Teyla says, disapproval showing in her tone, on her face, and even in the grip she has on her P90. "Ronon is allowed to interact and become friends with people outside of our team." She levels a stern look at them and adds, "He is not our possession."
McKay sputters, Sheppard gets another of those pained looks on his face, and Ronon strides ahead, lips curling.
*
Teyla's patience is tested the next week when she finds out that several of the Athosians are working on projects for Ronon, about which they'll tell her nothing. Teyla isn't petty and vindictive the way both Sheppard and McKay can be, but Ronon still avoids training with her for the time being because she's not above applying those sticks of hers to the same spot over and over and over again and considering it a "lesson".
*
There's a mutiny of sorts on MX5-991 after Ronon receives a package from the mainland. Sheppard and McKay are pointedly not talking to Ronon while having loud and meaningful discussions with each other about things like friendship, trust, sharing and "the evils of secret-keeping". Teyla simply ignores Ronon so completely that he might as well have stayed back on Atlantis.
Ronon's been getting less and less amused by their actions and reactions over the last two weeks and by the time the mission is over and they're all throwing themselves through the Stargate to avoid the arrows that the locals are shooting at them, his teeth are on edge.
After the post-mission exam Ronon leaves his team and goes directly to the botany lab. "When's it going to be ready?" he asks Parrish flatly, and he must look angry because Parrish, who has grown comfortable in Ronon's presence after all these weeks, flinches and stammers and takes two steps back before he answers.
"I, uh, don't know. You can--I mean, we could check on it?"
"We'll go now. Get what you need," Ronon growls. "I'll find Lorne."
He leaves the labs and makes it through two corridors before he falls to his knees and passes out.
*
The team is in the infirmary, then in quarantine, then in the infirmary again for a total of twelve days due to exposure to some kind of toxin on 991. Beckett gets them sorted as quickly as he can, probably more for his own benefit than theirs because only Teyla handles the confinement with any kind of good grace.
McKay yells and complains, Sheppard snaps at McKay and complains, and Ronon paces and growls. The medical staff has resorted to bribery and extortion within their ranks to determine who is going to have to deal with the team by the time Beckett finally releases them.
Two days later Parrish comes to the training room, where Ronon is working his way through a squadron of Marines. Ronon pauses, a Marine dangling from each arm. "What?"
"While you were in quarantine I went to the mainland." Ronon lifts his brows questioningly and Parrish adds, simply, "It's ready."
*
A week later, Ronon strides into the lab, takes McKay by the elbow, and propels him through the city and into the locker rooms.
"Oh my god, you've gone feral, haven't you?" McKay shouts, rubbing at his arm as though Ronon has permanently injured him. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Trip to the mainland. Get changed." McKay stares at him, mouth working silently, and looks like he's about to start yelling again, so Ronon steps forward, looms over him, and growls, "I could take Parrish."
McKay is digging through his locker when Ronon leaves to get Teyla, who simply nods when he tells her they're going out to the mainland, and then walks silently with Ronon through Atlantis.
*
Sheppard is in the Jumper bay already when they get there, looking surprised and suspicious.
"You aren't a med team," he says.
"Oh, how very observant of you, Colonel," McKay snaps, then glares at Ronon. "Why does he get tricked into being here, but I had to suffer the indignity of being hauled through the city like a sack of potatoes?"
"It is far easier to lure the Colonel here under false pretenses," Teyla points out to him. "He often shuttles the medical team to the mainland when they need to check on my people."
McKay looks at her archly. "I didn't see you being dragged around behind him by your hair, did I?"
Ronon snorts at the idea that anyone with a brain and a working sense of self-preservation would attempt to drag Teyla anywhere, much less by her hair. Sheppard seems equally amused. Teyla is giving McKay the look that indicates he is pushing her and should tread carefully.
"I'm just saying," McKay insists. "It's a little unfair that I was the only one manhandled."
"Could we maybe get to the part where Ronon tells us what's going on?" Sheppard suggests pleasantly but there's a glint in his eyes that tells Ronon he's actually a bit put out at the lack of information.
They all look at him expectantly and Ronon stares back blandly. "You wanted to know what I've been up to."
There are more questions than ever on their faces, in their eyes, when Ronon says nothing else. They look at each other, then at him, speaking silently in a complex language that only the four of them understand, and Ronon smiles slightly and makes his way to the Jumper when he realizes they're not going to barrage him with more questions. Yet.
*
The flight path that Lorne programmed into the Jumper takes them east of the Athosian settlement before looping them to the north. They come out from behind several large hills and coast down into the valley that is their destination, and Ronon watches his teammates' faces carefully when they first see what he's brought them here to show them.
He wonders what they were expecting that they're so very surprised and confused.
Sheppard glances back at Ronon. "I take it that's gaen?"
Ronon nods and gets to his feet. The storage bins under both bench seats are filled with supplies and he begins unloading them as Sheppard radios the city.
"Atlantis, this is Sheppard."
"Go ahead, Colonel," Weir responds.
"We've arrived, Elizabeth. I don't have any idea how long we'll be."
"Ronon arranged it with me earlier in the week. You're cleared for fourteen hours with check-ins every three."
"Wait, what?" McKay says sharply. "I can't possibly--"
"It's all been taken care of, Rodney," Weir informs him. "Zelenka agreed to take over the monitoring of the compressor you're testing and he'll be making sure the rest of your projects have sufficient coverage.
"And I suppose Major Lorne is going to be handling my office hours?" Sheppard guesses.
"He is. Enjoy your trip, everyone. Atlantis out."
McKay gapes at Sheppard. "You have office hours?"
*
The walk from the Jumper to the their destination is only a few hundred feet and they stop when they come to the beginning of the gaen clearing, which extends three inches above the ground around it and covers half an acre. It's cool and wet here, shaded by trees and hidden from the sun.
McKay's brow knits and then he kneels down to poke at the soft, green gaen. "It's moss," he says, shocked and confused, and Ronon doesn't tell him that Parrish said it was similar to, but different from, moss. "I don't understand. This is what you've been doing with Parrish? This doesn't make any sense."
Sheppard is toeing at it curiously, head tilted to the side. "I saw this," he says abruptly, looking up at Ronon. "It was growing on some of the walls on Sateda."
"Wait, is this why you went back to Sateda?" McKay asks.
"Yeah. Parrish needed some things to do this."
"But why, Ronon?" Teyla asks thoughtfully. "Does this have...meaning?"
Ronon isn't sure how he can answer that in a way that will make sense but won't require him to talk the way they're all so fond of. He thinks about it, wonders what to say, and in the meantime McKay gets to his feet.
"Of course it means something," he says impatiently. "Why would he go through all the trouble of doing this if it didn't mean anything?" Teyla stares at McKay and he blinks. "Oh. You were doing that--" He makes an odd circular gesture with his hand. "--thing, right? Where you get someone to talk. You're very good at that."
Sheppard's lips twist in amusement but smooth out again when Teyla looks in his direction, and Ronon still doesn't know what to say, so he decides on nothing at all, and steps into the gaen clearing.
*
Ronon takes his boots off and that's when the others cautiously join him, seeming unsure of what to do, or what's expected.
"This grew in my town," he says suddenly, stripping his socks off as well and then standing again. The gaen is plush and soft under his feet, giving in to his weight, though not as much as it did back home, where it had been deeper than could be measured. He and his friends would, at the start of each spring, after winter melted away, lay flat on their stomachs in the gaen field and burrow one arm down into it hoping that this year they would be tall enough, big enough, to touch bottom. They never were, though.
"It's moss; it grows just about anywhere," McKay tells him. He and Sheppard are standing off to the side and they seem content to let Ronon explain why they're here in his own time, his own way.
Ronon shakes his head. "It was different there. The field was big. Tall, too. We had to cut steps into it on the southern side to reach the top so that we could cross it."
"It sounds like it was a very prominent part of your people's lives," Teyla comments. She's sitting in front of Ronon, taking off her own boots, one hand absently petting the gaen. "Was it a trade item, as well?"
"No, but it was an...attraction. People came to our town to see it." He curls his toes, digs into the gaen beneath them, and then crouches down and inhales. He looks over at Sheppard and McKay. "Sit, take your shoes off."
*
McKay keeps his shoes on though he does finally concede to sit down after Ronon reaches up and yanks him down by his belt. He's sitting stiffly and trying not to touch too much of the gaen.
"Are we camping out?" Sheppard asks after rifling through the bags that Ronon brought from the Jumper. Ronon nods and Sheppard lays back and folds his hands under his head. He shifts on the gaen and sinks down several inches as it gives under him, conforms to his shape. He grins then and looks at McKay. "Okay, this is cool. It's like the memory foam they use in those beds."
Ronon doesn't know what memory foam is, but the comparison causes McKay to relax and the less tense he gets, the more the gaen conforms to him, around him, and he blinks in surprise, his mouth falling open. "Huh."
Ronon smiles and sprawls on his back, his fingers carving handholds into the gaen at his sides.
*
After the first check-in McKay insists he needs to eat, so Ronon unpacks the supplies and Sheppard and Teyla head off to collect wood for a fire. While they're gone Ronon uses a trowel that Parrish gave him to dig out a large circle of gaen about eight inches deep.
"How is it that deep?" McKay asks. "There's no way it should be that deep--or cover this large of an area--already."
Ronon shrugs and sets the clump of gaen aside. "Parrish said something about it being pervasive, but easily contained."
"What does that even mean?"
"I don't know," Ronon answers honestly. "He talks a lot but doesn't say much. Like you. Must be a scientist thing."
McKay glares at him. "He is not a scientist, especially not a scientist like me. How many times do I have to explain that to you?"
"Probably until he doesn't find your fits of righteous indignation amusing," Sheppard says as he and Teyla come back.
"Sheppard thought I was fucking Parrish," Ronon tells McKay, and, yes, the look on Sheppard's face is still just as amusing as McKay's indignant rants.
Teyla grins at him, not a smile, but a wide toothy grin, and Ronon finds himself grinning back.
*
Sheppard prepares the meal on the fire, using the grate that the mess hall staff let Ronon have. Weir insisted hamburgers and hotdogs were needed for an outing like this, and she went out of her way to procure them for him. Ronon's had both in Atlantis, but Sheppard swears everything will taste better out here, cooked over a fire. McKay supervises, and the two of them bicker in their odd manner, which has become familiar and somewhat reassuring in the year Ronon's been with them.
He and Teyla are off to the side, sitting in a peaceful silence that Teyla seems fine with. Strangely, Ronon is not.
"When I went back," he starts, and then pauses. Teyla waits patiently next to him, her arm brushing his. "The field was mostly destroyed, burned all the way down through. I used to think it was bottomless. That it went all the way through to the other side of the world."
He also thought, at one time, that the field was eternal, that it would be there for a thousand years, the same way it had been there for a thousand years before, according to the Satedan historians.
"Everything seems larger and grander when we are children," Teyla says softly. "Losing that perspective is a natural part of growing, maturing. Unfortunately, the Wraith cause many of us to lose it in a more tangible way."
It shouldn't make the painful spot in Ronon's chest ease to hear her say something that he already knew, but for some reason it does.
*
There are spongy round white things for dessert, also provided at Weir's insistence.
"Marshmallows," Sheppard names them as he hands everyone a twig. He spears one of the marshmallows on his twig and holds it above the fire, encouraging Ronon and Teyla to do the same.
McKay ignores the twig and simply eats the marshmallows as is. He holds out the bag to Teyla, then Ronon, who takes two, spearing one and eating the other. It's sweet, and the consistency is unusual, and he's not sure if he likes it.
"Did you camp out in the gaen on Sateda?" Sheppard asks him, twirling his twig and heating the other side of his marshmallow.
"I practically lived there in the summer months when I was younger," Ronon tells them. "Most of the kids did. We'd stake territory lines, play at being warriors, and stay up to all hours of the night. The town assigned sentries to the field to watch over us because we were always there."
"Sounds like heaven for a kid," Sheppard drawls.
"It was..." Ronon searches for a word to describe it and finally settles on, "free."
The marshmallow he's toasting starts to burn so he pulls it out of the fire and blows on it before eating it in one bite; it tastes sweeter than the plain one did, and it melts over his tongue, and he reaches for another.
*
When evening comes Ronon builds the fire higher; it's springtime and warm enough that they don't need it for heat, just for light. Sheppard and McKay tell him and Teyla about earth camping rituals, then veer off to other earth rituals. Most of it is incomprehensible, since they tend to forget to explain most things, but neither Ronon nor Teyla interrupt with questions very often.
Sheppard breaks off in the middle of speaking about a place called Santa Cruz, where he once spent a year and which is important or meaningful to him, judging by his tone of voice and the look on his face. His gaze finds Ronon across the fire and he frowns deeply for a long while.
Eventually Sheppard says, "The next time I go to earth on leave, you should come." He looks to Teyla and McKay, and adds, "All of you. I'll show you Santa Cruz. Rodney can show us Canada."
McKay stares at Sheppard, then at Ronon, his mouth twisting complexly. "Oh."
"I would like that," Teyla says, sounding interested and pleased, but she's looking at Ronon as she says it.
"Sure," Ronon says with a shrug, and Sheppard smiles.
"Okay. Good. Cool."
*
"There aren't any tents," McKay announces later, when they're all starting to get drowsy. They've had longer, harder days, but the heat and crackling light of the fire is lulling them towards sleep. "There aren't even any sleeping bags. Whatever the Colonel says, that is still the ground, not a disgustingly expensive Swedish sleep system, and I have a perfectly comfortable prescription mattress back in the city that I was manhandled from."
"We have slept on more uncomfortable surfaces," Teyla reminds him and he glares at her, but it's faint and it fades away quickly.
"Not willingly," he insists stubbornly.
"Calm down," Ronon says, getting to his feet and stretching. One of the large duffle bags contains his sword, and he unsheathes it and picks out a spot a few feet from the fire. He spears the gaen with the sword and goes about cutting out a large rectangular hole.
"Tell me you are not suggesting that we sleep in holes in the ground that are eerily similar to graves," McKay groans when Ronon hollows out the rectangle. "I have enough nightmares from this galaxy without adding 'being buried alive' to the list."
Ronon ignores him and takes several large padded pallets out of the bag. One of the Athosians was able to make them for him with materials he brought back from Sateda on his last trip. They're not the same as the ones from his childhood but neither is the gaen, and Ronon's starting to think that the differences have their own import.
The pallets are made out of the tanned hides that were prominently used in the military uniforms and it took Ronon half a day to dig out the entrance to the warehouse where it was stored. The drio hides have a distinctive scent and when he'd first smelled it again in the warehouse he'd been violently reminded of the death and destruction he'd witnessed before being taken by the Wraith.
Given that, he hadn't been sure that the pallets would be a good idea, but he's standing on fragrant layers of gaen right now and the combination of both scents reminds him of long hot seasons of freedom and nothing else.
*
As Ronon expected, once McKay tries the bed-down he appreciates it enough to stop threatening to sleep in the Jumper. That it took Sheppard strategically aiming and tripping him to get him to try it was just a bonus.
"What is in this thing?" McKay asks, making a little sound of pleasure as he burrows into the pallet that's been fitted into one of the cut outs.
"Ila feathers. I found a bundle of them the same place I got the hides."
"Is there any chance--"
"It's yours," Ronon interrupts him. "To keep."
"You are a god among cavemen, Ronon. Seriously. You don't even know what this is doing for my back, even that horrible spot at the base of my spine that nothing's ever been able to help. Not even the high-end masseur I hired in desperation on a trip to Sweden. I actually had to go to a chiropractor afterwards to fix the damage that incompetent goon did."
"Mine isn't all that," Sheppard says, and Ronon can hear him shifting. "In fact, it's poking me."
"As is mine," Teyla adds. "I believe this one is filled with the same feathers my people use."
"I only found enough ila feathers for one," Ronon tells them and crawls into his own bed-down.
"Why does Rodney get the good one?" Sheppard complains jokingly.
"He whines more."
"Hey!" McKay says but he sounds half asleep and the word doesn't carry its usual sharpness.
They slip into silence then, and not long after that Ronon hears the changes in Sheppard, Teyla and McKay's breathing that signals they've drifted off to sleep.
Ronon listens to the night sounds of the mainland and turns his face against the drio hide, rubbing his cheek against it.
*
Ronon wakes before the others and unpacks the last bag while he waits for them. Sheppard is first, as usual, and Teyla and McKay wake not long after, when Sheppard's feet slide out from under him on the dew wet gaen and he tumbles to the ground with a startled shout.
Ronon drops the bag he's just finished emptying and laughs, and he knows the image of Sheppard's wind-milling arms and confused face will stay with him for a long while.
"What? What?!" McKay exclaims frantically, bolting into a sitting position and staring around in a panic.
Teyla merely looks around, realizes what must have happened, and smirks.
"That wasn't very nice," Sheppard tells Ronon from the ground.
"I didn't do anything."
"You didn't say anything, either. Like, 'hey, watch out, the ground's slippery.'"
"You fell?" McKay asks, his lips twitching. "Oh my god, you fell."
"And I think I'm going to stay fallen."
"No you're not," Ronon says with a wolfish grin, and makes his way to Sheppard. The smooth wooden slides strapped to the bottom of his boots glide effortlessly over the wet gaen and Sheppard looks with interest at the second set of gaen-ecs in Ronon's hand. He catches them easily when Ronon tosses them, and before long the two of them are racing from one end of the field to the other, each doing their best to send the other off balance along the way.
They don't have much maneuverability, and Teyla and McKay are forced to move to the side of the clearing or be crashed into. They strap on the gaen-lits Ronon set out for them, which are spiked on the bottom and give them purchase on the wet ground underneath them.
McKay tells them, when they're done, that Ronon won every race, but neither Sheppard nor Ronon really cares. Much.
*
By the time they're finished with breakfast the dew has dried and the gaen is manageable in just their boots again.
"My people made these for you along with the pallets?" Teyla asks as she packs up the gaen-lits and gaen-ecs.
"Yeah. It's good work, especially since I didn't have samples to show them."
"We have some talented craftsmen, yes," she agrees.
Ronon collects the pallets and stows all but McKay's in the duffel bag. For McKay's there is a separate bag so that he can take his back to his quarters. McKay accepts it awkwardly, then clears his throat and straightens his back, looking stiff and uncomfortable. "I wanted to say thank you. For the pallet. I know what you said last night, about why you gave it to me, but I know that wasn't the reason. So, thank you for the...gift."
Sheppard teases McKay about how formal he is when he offers thanks, but Ronon appreciates that McKay takes it seriously, expresses it in a way that's markedly different from how he expresses anything else.
"You're welcome," Ronon says in response, rather than shrugging it away as he would with someone else, or even as he would with McKay on another day.
"Are we ready to go?" Sheppard asks, coming back into the clearing after having radioed in to Atlantis.
Ronon looks around and shakes his head. "Not yet." The gaen he cut out last night is still sitting in shaped clumps by their bed-downs, and he moves from one to another, filling in the rectangles again. He does the same with the circle he cut out for the fire pit, and then gets to his feet and nods. "Now we can go."
*
"What's going on down there?" Sheppard asks just after the Jumper lifts off.
"Looks like every Athosian kid from the settlement," McKay says, squinting against the sunlight coming through the front window. "And two adults hauling buckets? Am I seeing things?"
"No, those are definitely buckets," Teyla confirms and then looks at Ronon. "Would you know anything about this?"
"Maybe."
"The kids are all carrying gaen-ecs," Sheppard says blandly and turns his head to lift a brow at Ronon. "I'm guessing those buckets have water in them?"
Ronon tilts his head back and smiles at the roof of the Jumper. "Maybe."
*
When they return to Atlantis, Weir is waiting for them in the Jumper bay.
"Welcome back," she says, smiling at each of them before giving Ronon a questioning look. "Did your surprise go over well?"
"Think so. You'd have to ask them."
"It was a very enjoyable trip," Teyla says. "Thank you for sharing it with us, Ronon."
He nods in acknowledgement.
"It was nice," McKay agrees. "And you can consider my requests for an on-site chiropractor withdrawn, Elizabeth, thanks to Ronon and the feathers of something called an ila."
"They were more like demands," Weir drawls. "But I'll make a note of that. I'm glad you had a good time. You have two hours before the briefing for your mission tomorrow, so use them wisely."
Sheppard walks next to Ronon when they leave the Jumper bay, and Ronon warily watches him out of the corner of his eye. It isn't until they're exiting the transporter, McKay splitting off to go to the labs, Teyla heading for her quarters, and he and Sheppard ready to go in opposite directions, that Sheppard speaks.
"Hey," he says carefully, and he meets Ronon's eyes directly, steadily. "What you did over there? With the field, and the gaen-ecs, and, well, everything? It's..."
"It's what?" Ronon asks, and he sounds casual, but his stomach is tight and twisted.
"A good tribute." One side of his mouth curls up in an odd half-smile and he tilts his head to the side. "A living one, even," he adds, sounding both approving and proud.
Ronon exhales too evenly for it to be natural, and realizes that, huh, yes, that's exactly what it is.
.End
Solum Patriae - The soil of one's native country.
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