(no subject)
Title: Flash of the Blade
Rating: PG-13 for now.
By: Jenda Vis
Spoilers: Up through Reunion
Pairing: Sheppard/Dex
Genre: Drama, Angst
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't take this too seriously.
Summary: Sheppard can't figure Ronon out. Or his motives.
A/N: Another WIP. Hopefully the plot won't all fall apart before I get there. :)
Prologue
Chapter 1
They were being led down towards the square in shackles, past the angry stares of the townspeople, the seriousness of it quieting even McKay's tongue. Teyla kept her head held irritably high as she followed, while Sheppard tried not to trip over his own bare feet as he tried to scan the square for anything that would aid in their escape.
In the early morning silence, the sound of the activating gate was resounding, and the sight of Lorne's team, flanked by another six Marines with rifles at the ready, was stupefying.
It shouldn't have been, but hell, McKay was already ascending the steps of the gallows.
---
Lorne was reassessing the situation, preparing Roth and Amundson to follow his lead. He did so quietly. His small gestures and the darting of his eyes would have been invisible to someone who wasn't staring at their best hope for salvation. After too long a moment, they finally made their approach, stepping through the parting crowd.
"Take it easy, folks. We're looking for the Councilor."
"You'll find him in his shrouds, Major Lorne. Awaiting burial," a voice retorted, and a flash of white hair moved through the parting crowd. "What do you want?" It was Sahlen, the doctor. They'd shared dinner with the man less than twelve hours before, but it seemed like much longer.
"Doctor Sahlen. May I speak with you for a moment? It is of vital importance to your people as well as ours. You must not harm these three before I have said my piece. Is there somewhere private we can talk?"
As the Marines surrounded them, guns drawn, Sheppard watched Lorne, Roth, and Amundson follow the doctor to the two Minor Councilors standing at the far edge of the square, tried to read their discussion through the Councilors' angry gestures and Lorne's ramrod posture.
A glance down at Sergeant Tomlinson, but the serious glare that she returned tied another knot in his stomach, so he turned his attention back to the dirty ground.
When Lorne's team did return, the steel-eyed expression he wore didn't feel any more reassuring.
"Colonel Sheppard, you and your team are bound by law to answer to charges of crimes against your own people. Once we are satisfied that justice has been done, you will return to answer for the crimes against the people of New Sanacra. Returning peacefully, without incident, is the only way to guarantee your safety until the trial. Is this understood?"
"Yes." He could see McKay and Teyla nodding behind them, but could see nothing of their expressions, even as the Marines began to usher them towards the gate. They waited at gunpoint while Lieutenant Roth dialed Atlantis.
---
Tapping at his radio, Ronon found that it worked, but that no one was listening, and he toyed with the idea of going back to the gate. It would make it easier when they came through to find him.
But moving onward was the only real choice if he hoped to find shelter.
The scattered stones off to his left were slowly forming a pattern, and then a trail to follow. Ronon was finally free to try and fucking think. Something past the litany of things he already knew.
This isn't Atlantis, the team's not here. They’ve left no trail, and there's nowhere to hide. So they never made it here.
Hell, Ronon thought, I wasn't supposed to be here, either. So there's a problem with the gate, and they didn't go through. They're still back there, or they're not. They made it out, or they didn't.
The only other option was no less confusing. That he had bad information, or was lied to, and should have read the symbols on the dialing device as he passed.
Hah.
There had been no time, on this point he remained certain. The blood had been real, and the guards had been coming. The alarms had been sounded, and he had no option but to run.
The guards knew I was with them. They could've been captured.
The thought slipped up to stop him in his tracks for a moment, but the rain was falling harder, now, and he had to move onward. He needed to find shelter.
Following the path, which was beginning to wind slightly around low-slung hills, he saw some trees up ahead, not far from the path. Not many- it was by no means a forest- but they would suffice.
It was more of a relief than he'd expected, but apparently his injuries understood it as well, and made themselves known again. He forced himself not to stop, to prod at and examine the bruise at his side, the scratch on his shoulder. He ignored the hunger beginning to gnaw at his gut.
---
There was no dry kindling, so there was no fire, but the dense undergrowth protected him from much of the wind, and by crawling underneath his coat, he was able to protect himself from most of the rain.
He missed his bed. Wondered, for a moment, if he'd see it again. But right now, he was alone, more unprotected than he'd been in years, and didn't have the security for wishes.
He'd been less safe, though, and he knew it. More hungry, and more seriously injured than this, he'd survived. He'd be there when the morning came, just as he'd been for years, and he could fight if he needed to.
But now, tired after hours of walking through the rain, he couldn't fight off the worry that increased with every rattling branch.
They're safe. They're safe, and they'll make it back to Atlantis. They'll come and find me.
He swallowed the thoughts down, the hope tasting disappointingly hollow in his throat. It was a pathetic thing, to sit and wait for rescue, and it hurt worse than his shoulder. He'd never been afforded the option to hope for it before, not since his first weeks as a runner. Hadn't needed to consider if he could afford it since he met Sheppard.
Something's definitely wrong, he admitted, but McKay will fix it, John will fight it, or Teyla will understand it, and they'll be okay.
Even if they don't come.
---
"You should have seen your face," Lorne laughed, as soon as they were back in the city again. He waited until his team and the Marines were out of earshot, though, before continuing. "Seriously. What the hell happened?"
"I don't know," Sheppard figured it wasn't an entire untruth, but at least the embarrassment was starting to fade. "What did you tell them?"
"That you had sabotaged the city and that if we didn't get the codes from you, a hundred people would die, and we'd be in no position to continue trade relations."
"As it stands, I think we can stand to lose them. Anyhow, where's Ronon?"
Lorne slowed his steps. "I was about to ask you the same thing."
"He's not back?"
"Ah," Lorne glanced up towards the gate techs. "Any of you see Ronon come through last night?"
"No, sir." Banks said, checking the logs on her screen again before standing. "They only gate activity in the past day was Sheppard's team dialing out to New Sanacra, then yours coming through about thirty minutes later."
"Thanks," Lorne turned back to Sheppard, concerned. "You think he's still on New Sanacra?"
"I saw him gate out last night, right before we were arrested."
Lorne tried to translate the data into information, and was beginning to develop a working theory. "Ah," he began, but thankfully, held his tongue.
"No kidding," Sheppard sighed, trying not to rub at his wrist when he caught Keller waiting at the edge of the gate room. "Anyway, I'll catch you in a bit. I have to go get lights shined in my eyes and needles shoved in my arm."
"See you at the de-brief."
---
"Okay, I apologize for not being up to speed. There's still a lot I have to catch up on, as you can imagine. But as I understand it, the New Sanacrans have been our allies for over a year now?"
"Yes ma'am." Sheppard nodded. "They've mainly been in contact with Lorne's team. It was my team's second time out there. They'd been out for four days, and instead of sending Hilford's team, I decided that we should give McKay a crack at developing a workaround for all the radio interference."
"Radio interference?"
"The bedrock has some strange metals in it. Lorne's team brought back samples a few weeks ago?"
"Right," Carter nodded, presumably writing a reminder to check on the test results before raising her head to address Sheppard again. "And what about Ronon? Had he been in contact with them at any point before joining the expedition?"
"Not that I'm aware of. He didn't seem familiar with any of them yesterday or last night." But he also didn't seem to like them, Sheppard didn't add.
"But, and forgive my bluntness here, it seems that he may have killed their leader."
"May have," he repeated. "There's no actual hard evidence. We thought he was coming back here to get help." It sounded plausible enough, but Sheppard hoped that Carter wouldn't look too deeply at him, because he hadn't believed it for a second. Not then, and not now.
"Then why did he run? And where did he go?"
"That's," the entire fucking problem. "That's anybody's guess."
---
Sahlen stood, a little drunkenly, and passed the wine to Teyla as he began to answer her question.
"We had to abandon Sanacra, our original world, six years ago this harvest. There was a sickness there that we couldn't cure. It took the lives of a thousand at least, including my entire family. Those of us that survived, came here, named this world New Sanacra and made it our home."
Teyla poured her wine and smiled back at him, warmly. "It is impressive that you have managed such strong development in so short a time." She handed the jug to Rodney, who looked up from his datapad to glare at it suspiciously and slide it across the table to Ronon.
Sheppard cut in, if only to derail the flirtation for a second. "Have there been any further outbreaks of the disease?"
"No, which I suppose I should be thankful for," Sahlen shrugged.
It didn't make sense. "Why aren't you?" Sheppard asked, watching Ronon smirk as he refilled both their glasses, and then McKay's.
"We left those who were symptomatic behind."
McKay sharpened his gaze, apparently coming back to the conversation from wherever he'd been. "Couldn't the infection spread whenever people went back through the gate?"
"We have cut off all ties. Taken pains to ensure that no one goes through to Sanacra. In another generation's time, the address will have been forgotten. We can't afford to pass the information on to our children. It is selfish, I know, but there it stands."
"You are doing right by your children. It is the most one can hope for, and is by no means selfish." Teyla's assertion was met with another one of Ronon's dubious looks, and Ronon himself followed his look out the door, and into the night.
---
The typing stopped, and Carter nodded, looking at Sheppard, scrutiny in her eyes.
"And that's when you noticed the change with Ronon?"
Sheppard shifted in his seat, glancing over at Lorne, who tried to grin back like they weren't putting Ronon on trial. "I didn't really notice anything. He just went out and walked the perimeter. Kept an eye on things. The usual."
"I see. So he was outside for a while, and that's when the alarm was raised?"
"No, that came later."
---
After another hour of Sahlen's longing looks and Teyla's incessant grinning, Sahlen finally excused himself for the evening. Threat now deflected, Sheppard decided that McKay and Teyla could find their way to up their rooms on their own. He needed some air, and without operational radios, the usual nervousness whenever he couldn't immediately connect with one of his teammates was back in full force.
Ronon found him, though, as he stepped around the corner of the inn, distracted by the few lights visible from the windows on the hillside across the fields opposite the central mine entrance.
"Hey," Ronon came out of the shadows to fall into step beside him.
"Ronon," Sheppard started, but it took a moment to figure where to go from there. He had honestly expected to have to search half the town before finding him, even though he should have known better. "How's it going?"
Sheppard ignored the irritation that threatened to rise again. Ronon's desire, thwarted or not, to return to his own people shouldn't have shaken the team dynamic so much, and he knew he should have been able to set it to rights weeks ago.
If Ronon felt as awkward as Sheppard did, though, he didn't let on. "It's quiet."
"Yeah, I can see that." Another light, maybe a fire in a hearth, became visible on the hillside.
"There's not even fifty houses here. In the settlement."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Neither said anything for a while, listening to the wind blowing across the fields. "They would've had to leave behind a few hundred."
Sheppard didn't see the point, not at first, but Ronon was easy to read when he looked close enough. These people had left a thousand of their own people to die.
"Yeah," Sheppard didn't want to get into it. Not now, it was too late at night, and neither of them were capable of going back and fixing it. Ronon only shrugged, saying nothing more, but some of the tension seemed eased from his shoulders.
Sometimes, Ronon just needed to know that he'd been heard. Same as anyone.
After wandering a while longer, Sheppard caught himself stifling his third yawn, and Ronon stifling a grin at his expense. "I'm gonna turn in. You should think about doing likewise."
"Later. I'm fine."
"Okay." It wasn't worth the argument. "See you in the morning." John nodded, turned back towards the inn, mildly surprised to find that they'd gone so far. He went inside and found the stairs, the wood creaking beneath his boots as he ascended.
The bed was amazingly uncomfortable, and he couldn't sleep, so Sheppard was surprised that he didn't manage to have his sidearm at the ready when the door was kicked in by armed guards two hours later.
---
Debriefing finally completed, Sheppard was pretty sure he'd run out of words, so it was really no surprise to find that he didn't have a clue what to say to Teyla when he found her waiting in the hallway in front of his door.
"How did your meeting with Colonel Carter go?"
"Ah, about as well as could be hoped." He squinted against the headache pressing in on his eyeballs. "She's sending Lorne's team through in the morning to see what they can find and grab the buffer from their DHD so we can get started on the search."
"Will they be safe?"
"I ordered a cloaked jumper to follow them in. McKay's going to be on board, he says the rest of the radio recalibrations can be made from the jumper. If you're interested, you're welcome to go as well."
"Are you not going yourself?"
"Yeah. Sorry. Of course I am."
"I see." There was something more that Teyla wanted to say, that much was clear, but she looked again at Sheppard's face and decided, apparently, that it could wait. She bowed her head and turned away towards the transporters, and Sheppard let himself into his quarters and tried not to think of the thirty ways he'd fucked up today.
Sat on the edge of the bed, and tried not to think about why he wasn't already back out there, looking for Ronon.
Chapter 2
Rating: PG-13 for now.
By: Jenda Vis
Spoilers: Up through Reunion
Pairing: Sheppard/Dex
Genre: Drama, Angst
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't take this too seriously.
Summary: Sheppard can't figure Ronon out. Or his motives.
A/N: Another WIP. Hopefully the plot won't all fall apart before I get there. :)
Prologue
Chapter 1
They were being led down towards the square in shackles, past the angry stares of the townspeople, the seriousness of it quieting even McKay's tongue. Teyla kept her head held irritably high as she followed, while Sheppard tried not to trip over his own bare feet as he tried to scan the square for anything that would aid in their escape.
In the early morning silence, the sound of the activating gate was resounding, and the sight of Lorne's team, flanked by another six Marines with rifles at the ready, was stupefying.
It shouldn't have been, but hell, McKay was already ascending the steps of the gallows.
---
Lorne was reassessing the situation, preparing Roth and Amundson to follow his lead. He did so quietly. His small gestures and the darting of his eyes would have been invisible to someone who wasn't staring at their best hope for salvation. After too long a moment, they finally made their approach, stepping through the parting crowd.
"Take it easy, folks. We're looking for the Councilor."
"You'll find him in his shrouds, Major Lorne. Awaiting burial," a voice retorted, and a flash of white hair moved through the parting crowd. "What do you want?" It was Sahlen, the doctor. They'd shared dinner with the man less than twelve hours before, but it seemed like much longer.
"Doctor Sahlen. May I speak with you for a moment? It is of vital importance to your people as well as ours. You must not harm these three before I have said my piece. Is there somewhere private we can talk?"
As the Marines surrounded them, guns drawn, Sheppard watched Lorne, Roth, and Amundson follow the doctor to the two Minor Councilors standing at the far edge of the square, tried to read their discussion through the Councilors' angry gestures and Lorne's ramrod posture.
A glance down at Sergeant Tomlinson, but the serious glare that she returned tied another knot in his stomach, so he turned his attention back to the dirty ground.
When Lorne's team did return, the steel-eyed expression he wore didn't feel any more reassuring.
"Colonel Sheppard, you and your team are bound by law to answer to charges of crimes against your own people. Once we are satisfied that justice has been done, you will return to answer for the crimes against the people of New Sanacra. Returning peacefully, without incident, is the only way to guarantee your safety until the trial. Is this understood?"
"Yes." He could see McKay and Teyla nodding behind them, but could see nothing of their expressions, even as the Marines began to usher them towards the gate. They waited at gunpoint while Lieutenant Roth dialed Atlantis.
---
Tapping at his radio, Ronon found that it worked, but that no one was listening, and he toyed with the idea of going back to the gate. It would make it easier when they came through to find him.
But moving onward was the only real choice if he hoped to find shelter.
The scattered stones off to his left were slowly forming a pattern, and then a trail to follow. Ronon was finally free to try and fucking think. Something past the litany of things he already knew.
This isn't Atlantis, the team's not here. They’ve left no trail, and there's nowhere to hide. So they never made it here.
Hell, Ronon thought, I wasn't supposed to be here, either. So there's a problem with the gate, and they didn't go through. They're still back there, or they're not. They made it out, or they didn't.
The only other option was no less confusing. That he had bad information, or was lied to, and should have read the symbols on the dialing device as he passed.
Hah.
There had been no time, on this point he remained certain. The blood had been real, and the guards had been coming. The alarms had been sounded, and he had no option but to run.
The guards knew I was with them. They could've been captured.
The thought slipped up to stop him in his tracks for a moment, but the rain was falling harder, now, and he had to move onward. He needed to find shelter.
Following the path, which was beginning to wind slightly around low-slung hills, he saw some trees up ahead, not far from the path. Not many- it was by no means a forest- but they would suffice.
It was more of a relief than he'd expected, but apparently his injuries understood it as well, and made themselves known again. He forced himself not to stop, to prod at and examine the bruise at his side, the scratch on his shoulder. He ignored the hunger beginning to gnaw at his gut.
---
There was no dry kindling, so there was no fire, but the dense undergrowth protected him from much of the wind, and by crawling underneath his coat, he was able to protect himself from most of the rain.
He missed his bed. Wondered, for a moment, if he'd see it again. But right now, he was alone, more unprotected than he'd been in years, and didn't have the security for wishes.
He'd been less safe, though, and he knew it. More hungry, and more seriously injured than this, he'd survived. He'd be there when the morning came, just as he'd been for years, and he could fight if he needed to.
But now, tired after hours of walking through the rain, he couldn't fight off the worry that increased with every rattling branch.
They're safe. They're safe, and they'll make it back to Atlantis. They'll come and find me.
He swallowed the thoughts down, the hope tasting disappointingly hollow in his throat. It was a pathetic thing, to sit and wait for rescue, and it hurt worse than his shoulder. He'd never been afforded the option to hope for it before, not since his first weeks as a runner. Hadn't needed to consider if he could afford it since he met Sheppard.
Something's definitely wrong, he admitted, but McKay will fix it, John will fight it, or Teyla will understand it, and they'll be okay.
Even if they don't come.
---
"You should have seen your face," Lorne laughed, as soon as they were back in the city again. He waited until his team and the Marines were out of earshot, though, before continuing. "Seriously. What the hell happened?"
"I don't know," Sheppard figured it wasn't an entire untruth, but at least the embarrassment was starting to fade. "What did you tell them?"
"That you had sabotaged the city and that if we didn't get the codes from you, a hundred people would die, and we'd be in no position to continue trade relations."
"As it stands, I think we can stand to lose them. Anyhow, where's Ronon?"
Lorne slowed his steps. "I was about to ask you the same thing."
"He's not back?"
"Ah," Lorne glanced up towards the gate techs. "Any of you see Ronon come through last night?"
"No, sir." Banks said, checking the logs on her screen again before standing. "They only gate activity in the past day was Sheppard's team dialing out to New Sanacra, then yours coming through about thirty minutes later."
"Thanks," Lorne turned back to Sheppard, concerned. "You think he's still on New Sanacra?"
"I saw him gate out last night, right before we were arrested."
Lorne tried to translate the data into information, and was beginning to develop a working theory. "Ah," he began, but thankfully, held his tongue.
"No kidding," Sheppard sighed, trying not to rub at his wrist when he caught Keller waiting at the edge of the gate room. "Anyway, I'll catch you in a bit. I have to go get lights shined in my eyes and needles shoved in my arm."
"See you at the de-brief."
---
"Okay, I apologize for not being up to speed. There's still a lot I have to catch up on, as you can imagine. But as I understand it, the New Sanacrans have been our allies for over a year now?"
"Yes ma'am." Sheppard nodded. "They've mainly been in contact with Lorne's team. It was my team's second time out there. They'd been out for four days, and instead of sending Hilford's team, I decided that we should give McKay a crack at developing a workaround for all the radio interference."
"Radio interference?"
"The bedrock has some strange metals in it. Lorne's team brought back samples a few weeks ago?"
"Right," Carter nodded, presumably writing a reminder to check on the test results before raising her head to address Sheppard again. "And what about Ronon? Had he been in contact with them at any point before joining the expedition?"
"Not that I'm aware of. He didn't seem familiar with any of them yesterday or last night." But he also didn't seem to like them, Sheppard didn't add.
"But, and forgive my bluntness here, it seems that he may have killed their leader."
"May have," he repeated. "There's no actual hard evidence. We thought he was coming back here to get help." It sounded plausible enough, but Sheppard hoped that Carter wouldn't look too deeply at him, because he hadn't believed it for a second. Not then, and not now.
"Then why did he run? And where did he go?"
"That's," the entire fucking problem. "That's anybody's guess."
---
Sahlen stood, a little drunkenly, and passed the wine to Teyla as he began to answer her question.
"We had to abandon Sanacra, our original world, six years ago this harvest. There was a sickness there that we couldn't cure. It took the lives of a thousand at least, including my entire family. Those of us that survived, came here, named this world New Sanacra and made it our home."
Teyla poured her wine and smiled back at him, warmly. "It is impressive that you have managed such strong development in so short a time." She handed the jug to Rodney, who looked up from his datapad to glare at it suspiciously and slide it across the table to Ronon.
Sheppard cut in, if only to derail the flirtation for a second. "Have there been any further outbreaks of the disease?"
"No, which I suppose I should be thankful for," Sahlen shrugged.
It didn't make sense. "Why aren't you?" Sheppard asked, watching Ronon smirk as he refilled both their glasses, and then McKay's.
"We left those who were symptomatic behind."
McKay sharpened his gaze, apparently coming back to the conversation from wherever he'd been. "Couldn't the infection spread whenever people went back through the gate?"
"We have cut off all ties. Taken pains to ensure that no one goes through to Sanacra. In another generation's time, the address will have been forgotten. We can't afford to pass the information on to our children. It is selfish, I know, but there it stands."
"You are doing right by your children. It is the most one can hope for, and is by no means selfish." Teyla's assertion was met with another one of Ronon's dubious looks, and Ronon himself followed his look out the door, and into the night.
---
The typing stopped, and Carter nodded, looking at Sheppard, scrutiny in her eyes.
"And that's when you noticed the change with Ronon?"
Sheppard shifted in his seat, glancing over at Lorne, who tried to grin back like they weren't putting Ronon on trial. "I didn't really notice anything. He just went out and walked the perimeter. Kept an eye on things. The usual."
"I see. So he was outside for a while, and that's when the alarm was raised?"
"No, that came later."
---
After another hour of Sahlen's longing looks and Teyla's incessant grinning, Sahlen finally excused himself for the evening. Threat now deflected, Sheppard decided that McKay and Teyla could find their way to up their rooms on their own. He needed some air, and without operational radios, the usual nervousness whenever he couldn't immediately connect with one of his teammates was back in full force.
Ronon found him, though, as he stepped around the corner of the inn, distracted by the few lights visible from the windows on the hillside across the fields opposite the central mine entrance.
"Hey," Ronon came out of the shadows to fall into step beside him.
"Ronon," Sheppard started, but it took a moment to figure where to go from there. He had honestly expected to have to search half the town before finding him, even though he should have known better. "How's it going?"
Sheppard ignored the irritation that threatened to rise again. Ronon's desire, thwarted or not, to return to his own people shouldn't have shaken the team dynamic so much, and he knew he should have been able to set it to rights weeks ago.
If Ronon felt as awkward as Sheppard did, though, he didn't let on. "It's quiet."
"Yeah, I can see that." Another light, maybe a fire in a hearth, became visible on the hillside.
"There's not even fifty houses here. In the settlement."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Neither said anything for a while, listening to the wind blowing across the fields. "They would've had to leave behind a few hundred."
Sheppard didn't see the point, not at first, but Ronon was easy to read when he looked close enough. These people had left a thousand of their own people to die.
"Yeah," Sheppard didn't want to get into it. Not now, it was too late at night, and neither of them were capable of going back and fixing it. Ronon only shrugged, saying nothing more, but some of the tension seemed eased from his shoulders.
Sometimes, Ronon just needed to know that he'd been heard. Same as anyone.
After wandering a while longer, Sheppard caught himself stifling his third yawn, and Ronon stifling a grin at his expense. "I'm gonna turn in. You should think about doing likewise."
"Later. I'm fine."
"Okay." It wasn't worth the argument. "See you in the morning." John nodded, turned back towards the inn, mildly surprised to find that they'd gone so far. He went inside and found the stairs, the wood creaking beneath his boots as he ascended.
The bed was amazingly uncomfortable, and he couldn't sleep, so Sheppard was surprised that he didn't manage to have his sidearm at the ready when the door was kicked in by armed guards two hours later.
---
Debriefing finally completed, Sheppard was pretty sure he'd run out of words, so it was really no surprise to find that he didn't have a clue what to say to Teyla when he found her waiting in the hallway in front of his door.
"How did your meeting with Colonel Carter go?"
"Ah, about as well as could be hoped." He squinted against the headache pressing in on his eyeballs. "She's sending Lorne's team through in the morning to see what they can find and grab the buffer from their DHD so we can get started on the search."
"Will they be safe?"
"I ordered a cloaked jumper to follow them in. McKay's going to be on board, he says the rest of the radio recalibrations can be made from the jumper. If you're interested, you're welcome to go as well."
"Are you not going yourself?"
"Yeah. Sorry. Of course I am."
"I see." There was something more that Teyla wanted to say, that much was clear, but she looked again at Sheppard's face and decided, apparently, that it could wait. She bowed her head and turned away towards the transporters, and Sheppard let himself into his quarters and tried not to think of the thirty ways he'd fucked up today.
Sat on the edge of the bed, and tried not to think about why he wasn't already back out there, looking for Ronon.
Chapter 2