004. Insides; Out and In
Title: Out and In
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Amelia Banks, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagen, Jennifer Keller, Rodney McKay, John Sheppard.
Prompt: 004 Insides
Word Count: 634
Rating: PG
Summary: Amelia Banks’ initiation starts, even if she didn’t know it at the time.
Notes: Very minor spoilers for S5 Search and Rescue. So, yeah, I'm kind of going through a writers block at the moment... so I'll happily take suggestions/requests =] Thanks. LDT.
*
The first time I was asked to sit with the ‘in’ crowd, I almost panicked. It was unexpected, though the others didn’t seem to think so. I politely and nervously accepted the invitation, first made by Teyla, and slid cautiously into the only vacant seat, next to Ronon.
Col. Sheppard was eyeing me from his position next to Teyla, opposite me and I felt like my every move was being scrutinised. I didn’t dare look up at him from my tray, afraid if I looked at him, it would become even more awkward for me than it already was.
But Teyla just turned to Doctor Jennifer Keller who sat at the head of the table, asking her a question.
I felt like a total outsider, whom everyone thought was an insider - out of my element and making it worse for myself with every nervous breath I took. To me, it started to sound like I was having trouble breathing, it was so laboured. So I counted it out. I was concentrating so hard that I didn’t notice Teyla turn to me until I felt the gentle nudge of Ronon’s forearm against mine.
“Amelia,” The Athosian woman said to direct my attention toward her. “What do you think of Mr Woolsey’s first week in Atlantis?”
I was so taken aback by the question that I must have looked like a fish out of water, opening and closing my mouth like I was. Col. Sheppard seemed amused by my reaction but waited for my answer none the less. Ronon on the other hand was more interested in the table than in me, it seemed.
Keller was about to open her mouth to say something in my silence and by the look on her face, it was most probably something amusing at my expense.
“I think he’s having a hard time adjusting...” I started, essentially cutting off the doctor without seeming to be intentionally rude.
“to the responsibility?” Keller asked me before i could really finish my thought.
“no, to not wearing a suit everyday.” I said with a perfectly straight face. “I think he liked the restriction.”
I, in the moment, didn’t intend for this general opinion to be funny, instead just wanting to see Keller’s reaction to not being right for once, but from opposite and beside me I hear snorts of laughter. Sheppard quickly covered his with a lame coughing fit. Teyla kindly offered her services in patting his back for him. Ronon didn’t even try an attempt, grinning first at me then more subtly and wickedly at Keller.
When he looked back at me, he was still smiling. I found this very rare coming from the Satedan so it was hard not to smile back.
The moment was ruined, perfectly, by Dr McKay’s entrance to the food hall. He wandered over in his usual arrogant strides and stood right beside me as if I should acknowledge him in some way. When I didn’t look, he coughed, raised a brow in my direction and waited some more. Ronon’s smile turned more into a smirk then and as he turned away, I could see him rolling his eyes. This made me chuckle softly and when I turned to look up at the scientist, his expression was of a wounded manner.
Instead, however, of apologising with a pleasant smile, as I most likely would have for any other person, I held out my hand.
“Hi, I’m Amelia Banks.” An almost wicked smile to match Ronon’s came to my lips. “And you are?”
The look that crossed McKay’s features after that moment gave me and Ronon many discussions, and fuel for more mischief, in the future.
I had passed, unconsciously, my initiation and now, and for many years later, we all still teased him about that day.
*