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TITLE: Amends and Promises
Disclaimers in Part One
Amends and Promises
Part Two
"Ronan," Colonel Sheppard asked pointedly as the taller man arrived at their resting place. "Glad you decided to join the rest of the class."
Surprised at his tone of voice, Teyla glanced up at the Colonel from her perch on a mossy rock. He had been terse for most of the morning, as though his thoughts were elsewhere.
As he flung himself down beside Teyla, Ronan shrugged. "Saw something I wanted to check out."
"Such as?"
"Might have been a spaceport."
Colonel Sheppard's eyes narrowed. "Might have been?"
"Hard to tell," Ronan said as he hauled out a water bottle from his pack and took a long drink. "Didn't go close and the light's not good." He indicated the forest canopy above them.
"What did it look like?"
Even Rodney glanced up at the Colonel's short tone. Ronan looked mildly surprised, but answered. "Landing pads, buildings, tower. The usual. The forest has grown up over it, though."
The forest was the reason they were walking to the ruins that had been pinpointed as Ancient design. It was thought to be another Ancient outpost in the Pegasus system and the prospect had turned into a fight as to whose team would get to check it out.
Colonel Sheppard claimed the right as the senior city military officer. As they were gearing up, he admitted to Teyla that if he didn't, they'd listen to Rodney complain for the next week.
Of course, to reach the ruins, they had to walk through several miles of dense forest by foot. Even an Atlantis 'jumper couldn't make it through the heavy undergrowth.
She listened as Colonel Sheppard continued to grill Ronan about what he'd seen. Ronan answered in his usual easy tones, but there were undercurrents to their interaction that concerned her more than she allowed to show.
Teyla was fond of her teammates - all of them. She and Aiden had been good friends before he was infected with the Wraith enzyme and would not give up the power. Dr. McKay might not think much of her people's technology but he was more than willing to explain anything to her - perhaps using rather more words and self-aggrandizement than necessary, but that was his personality - and would 'dumb it down' far enough for her to understand. And she understood Ronan's feelings of isolation and difference; in a city full of personnel from Earth, they were two who did not belong and were similar in that distinction.
And then there was John Sheppard.
Her relationship with him had grown over the last year, beginning with professional trust and moving towards personal trust. She suspected that his initial response to her had been because he considered her a good-looking young woman as much as a potential ally for his people. As time went on, she had moved from 'trusted team-mate' to 'trusted friend' in his estimation: both titles of which she was proud.
What he had brought up between them while under the influence of the retrovirus was something that Teyla had not been ready to face.
He was an attractive man; Teyla was not immune to that, but there was no need to dwell on it, no need to take it beyond friends. He was content to admire, she was content to admire, they both wished to retain the status quo. It was easier that way.
It was more difficult after the kiss. While he had not intended such an action, he had acted it out, and now the door had been forced, she could not find a way to shut it. If yesterday's questions about Ronan were any indication, Colonel Shep-- John could not find a way to shut that door in his mind, either.
John seemed to be struggling in balancing the personal and professional aspects of his interaction with Ronan, especially after coming to the conclusion that his newest team-member was interested in Teyla.
Teyla was not so sure. Ronan had made some comments that seemed to indicate that he was interested. However, Teyla retained the impression that he was merely seeking commonality at this stage. Teasing aside, she felt that Ronan was not interested in her, just in someone who resonated with his own experience in this place full of strange and different people.
She put away her drink bottle, absently listening as Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay argued about the possible technological finds available in an Ancient ship hangar.
Something flickered on the edge of her senses, the faintest of forebodings, and she stood and walked several paces away, leaving her teammates behind the better to listen.
"Teyla?"
Even as she held up one hand to silence him, she felt the buzzing begin in her head. Wraith ships had just come through the Stargate.
"The Wraith are here."
Colonel Sheppard swore. "You're sure?"
"Yes." She didn't elaborate. "Through the Stargate." It had come upon her too fast and too strong to be ships coming down through space.
McKay froze. "What? Here? Why? It's a deserted planet, why would they come--"
"McKay," Sheppard warned. He glanced up at the fragments of sky visible between the leaves of the tree canopy. Teyla could see the calculation in his eyes. They were too far to make it back to the ship before the Wraith darts arrived, and the woods would be no protection if the Wraith detected them.
"Okay," he said, "change of plan. We're going to head over to the spaceport Ronan saw. Let's hope his eyes weren't deceiving him and that it has shielding."
"But..."
"Ronan, lead the way."
"But what about the ruins?"
"We can check out the ruins after the Wraith are gone," said Colonel Sheppard, indicating the direction in which Ronan had started off. "Now move, McKay!"
Teyla fell into rearguard position as Colonel Sheppard hurried Dr. McKay along, explaining things in a low undertone.
"We won't get back to the 'jumper in time, but the spaceport might have shielding - if we can make it there!"
"I was just asking..."
"Don't ask, Rodney. Just run."
They'd only gone a few hundred yards when they heard the whine of a Wraith dart to the right.
Run.
There was little hope of outrunning the dart, but if they could reach the relative shelter of the buildings...
The proximity of the Wraith dart prickled down her spine. It was close and coming back for them. Teyla caught up with Colonel Sheppard and Rodney, one hand on each of their vests, as she hauled them aside, out of the way of the dematerialising beam. Ronan was too far ahead for her to do anything more than cry his name.
"Ronan!"
His senses were nearly as good as hers when it came to the Wraith. As the shimmering beam of light swept past them, missing Rodney's foot by mere inches, Ronan dived to the other side and rolled out of the way. He was on his feet again in moments, coming towards them and hauling Teyla up with one strong yank.
Ronan glanced up at the sky as she reached out to help Colonel Sheppard up. "Why are they here? There's no-one else on the planet."
"They're hunting us," said Colonel Sheppard.
"Must be some kind of a trigger that we set of," McKay said as he picked himself up and began dusting himself. "Maybe some kind of a sensor that lets them know--"
Teyla took his shoulder and prodded him on towards the spaceport, "Speculate later," she suggested. "They will be back."
The dart whined past, barely visible overhead. Teyla twitched and saw the Colonel watching her.
"We'd better get back moving again," he said. "Ronan."
Ronan turned to look at Teyla, then nodded and set off again. Rodney grumbled a little, but with some prodding from Colonel Sheppard, he moved. Teyla indicated she would take rearguard again, and while the Colonel looked as though he wanted to argue, then nodded.
She was relieved that he was going to trust her instincts. The Wraith presence was a buzzing in her mind, heavy with the dread of years of cullings. She had no energy or time to argue with him right now.
They moved through the forest, listening for the dart that swooped past again and again.
Two more passes came dangerously close to them. The first time, they saw the beam coming towards them and scrambled to get out of its way. The second time, it was Ronan who hauled Colonel Sheppard out of the way of the beam path while Teyla dragged Dr. McKay aside.
"Not that I don't like you, Teyla," Rodney said when he picked himself up again. "But I don't suppose you could grip just a little more gently? My abilities lie in the brains department, not in brawn."
"I could leave you in the path of the beam," she told him as they moved out again.
"Well, yes. You could. But you wouldn't, would you?"
"McKay," Colonel Sheppard barked. "Move!"
"Moving! Moving! Geeze."
The passes were getting closer together - sweeping the area with unnerving accuracy.
"Do they know where we are?" Ronan asked as they dodged another one.
Rodney looked up. "How could they know that?"
"Life-signs detectors."
"They don't have them."
"You sure?" They dodged another pass.
"Well, no, I'm not sure," Rodney snapped. "But we could always ask, you know, after they beam us up into the hiveship..."
As they discovered during the next pass, their concern shouldn't have been about being beamed up, as facing what was beamed down.
Colonel Sheppard had his gun up and was firing upon one of the Wraith even as they raised their stunner weapons. Ronan had his gun out and shot another in the chest, dodging around a tree. Teyla lifted her weapon up and got off a couple of rounds, but was forced behind a tree as a stunner blast rolled through the air where she'd been standing a moment before.
She heard more shots - stunner and guns, and ducked back around the tree.
Four Wraith were down. So was Rodney.
Colonel Sheppard swore as Ronan crouched over the scientist and checked him. "Close range hit. He's going to be out for a while."
"And they're still looking for us," muttered the Colonel as the dart screamed overhead.
Ronan glanced at her then back at Sheppard. "If you need, we can run interference."
John looked up at them. "No. We stick together."
Another dart screamed by, depositing more Wraith, and both Ronan and Teyla covered as the Colonel dragged McKay behind a tree.
"And if sticking together gets us killed?" Ronan snarled as he shot down another Wraith.
"Then we'll all die together!"
Teyla blinked as she gunned down the last Wraith. That was fatalistic, coming from Colonel Sheppard. "Colonel, separated, we have a better chance of all making it back. Rodney is injured and will not recover for some time. We need to be somewhere safe."
"Which is why we're headed to the spaceport."
Ronan frowned slightly. "Right now, we're not headed anywhere." He frowned as the dart screamed nearby. "And they know where we are."
Colonel Sheppard looked at her. "Teyla?"
"We will keep in radio contact," she said. "Get Rodney to safety."
There was a moment when he appeared to struggle with the decision, and then nodded. "Take care."
She felt the concern in his gaze like his hand on her shoulder. "You, too." Then she and Ronan jogged off into the forest.
What followed was a complicated game of tag-and-dodge, made edgy by the constant passes of the Wraith ship and their concern for Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay. The leaf cover made shooting at the dart difficult, but they did their best, splitting up and meeting back together again as they evaded the Wraith.
As she pulled another clip from her flak jacket, she reflected that at least she need not worry about Ronan's ability to handle himself. She need not even worry about him being taken; the Wraith could not feed off him, and even if they once again made him a runner, this time, he had somewhere to run to, people he could trust.
Here, she only had to watch out for herself.
And hope that John and Dr. McKay had reached the spaceport.
Her radio hissed. "Teyla? Ronan?"
She slammed the clip into the gun. "Here, Colonel."
"Teyla, you okay?"
"We are fine. Rodney?"
"Still out. We're in the spaceport - tell Ronan he was right." There was a slight echo to the sound of his voice. "Now get back here."
Ronan glanced over at her as he dropped to the ground. "Curfew called?"
Teyla laughed in spite of herself. "So it seems. He is concerned." She flipped the safety catch onto her gun and began heading back at a steady lope, Ronan easily keeping up with her.
The dart soared by again, the beam missing them by inches. At least no more Wraith were being materialised down; that was one thing about which they didn't have to worry.
"He's concerned about you."
Ronan's words startled her, but she kept her pace, listening for the dart, stretching her senses for the hum and buzz of the ship and its pilot in her mind. "He has concern for all his team."
"Yeah, but specifically about you. I've noticed."
Did he have to sound so smug about it?
She put on her most censorious tone. "This is neither the time nor the place to discuss such things."
"Why not?" They ran right, ducking and weaving through the foliage as the dart screamed back overhead. "Priorities become important when you're on the run."
Teyla leapt a fallen tree, slightly envious as Ronan cleared it with barely a hitch. "You presume that this is a priority."
"Isn't it?" His dreadlocks swung as he glanced at her. "Do you like him?"
"That is not a question you have a right to ask."
He grinned, like a mischievous child. "Maybe not. I can still ask." The dart was coming back, and seeing where it's path led, they split, separating around the tree as they made their way back towards the point where they'd left Colonel Sheppard and Rodney. "You can still answer."
"Not now," she snapped, squinting through the filtered light of the forest. Was that the shape and form of buildings through the trees?
It was. Five minutes later, they were inside what must have been an Ancient outpost, complete with two ships that lit up when John ran his hand over the consoles.
"Only two," Ronan said as the hatch closed up.
"Two more than we presently have - now strap in."
They flew out of there like the 'bat outta hell' that Aiden had referred to more than once, bringing down the Wraith dart on the plain before the Stargate before flying back through to Atlantis.
Back in Atlantis, they hovered around, waiting for the verdict on Rodney.
Dr. Weir refused to let Colonel Sheppard go back to pick up the other 'jumpers. He was all set to argue her down when Dr. Beckett took one look at them and decided that they should be put through their post-gate inspection.
Not even Colonel Sheppard's protests got him out of that one, and the glance he shot Teyla was exasperated.
When she turned to follow the medical technician assigned to her, she glimpsed Ronan's smirk before she headed over to the cubicle assigned her.
It was nothing more than a quick check-up. The woman salved a couple of scrapes, picked splinters out of her arm, and spoke easily of the gossip in the base while Teyla listened and laughed at the escapades of the others in the city.
And when she jumped off the bed and went out to see if Rodney's state had changed, Ronan fell into step beside her. "You never answered my question."
Do you like him?
He seemed more amused than dismayed by her evasion, and Teyla glared at him as they passed into the room where their teammate lay sprawled over one of the beds. "I said it was not..." She trailed off when she spotted John propping one wall of the room. "How is he?"
John shrugged. "He'll survive. They make 'em tough on Earth." He looked from Teyla to Ronan to Teyla. "You headed off to the showers?"
"I am," Teyla said, uncomfortably aware that he was looking at her and Ronan, and that Ronan was watching them both. "If you will excuse me, I will return later to see Dr. McKay."
The formality made things easier for her in the face of John's watchfulness. Ronan did not.
"Teyla."
She turned. "Ronan."
"You didn't answer the question."
She looked from his amused expression to John's carefully neutral one from beside Rodney's bed, and knew that her skin flushed as she looked back at Ronan.
It would be possible to lie. To lie to him and therefore to Colonel Sheppard. She could deflect his question yet again and wait for the next time it came up - and it would come up. Ronan had learned persistence as the Wraith had taught him hatred.
So she answered him, even and calm. She wouldn't forget his pushing and he would regret it the next time it came to fighting.
"The answer is yes." And with that, Teyla turned on her heel and strode off, leaving both men behind her.
--
To: Part Three
Disclaimers in Part One
Part Two
"Ronan," Colonel Sheppard asked pointedly as the taller man arrived at their resting place. "Glad you decided to join the rest of the class."
Surprised at his tone of voice, Teyla glanced up at the Colonel from her perch on a mossy rock. He had been terse for most of the morning, as though his thoughts were elsewhere.
As he flung himself down beside Teyla, Ronan shrugged. "Saw something I wanted to check out."
"Such as?"
"Might have been a spaceport."
Colonel Sheppard's eyes narrowed. "Might have been?"
"Hard to tell," Ronan said as he hauled out a water bottle from his pack and took a long drink. "Didn't go close and the light's not good." He indicated the forest canopy above them.
"What did it look like?"
Even Rodney glanced up at the Colonel's short tone. Ronan looked mildly surprised, but answered. "Landing pads, buildings, tower. The usual. The forest has grown up over it, though."
The forest was the reason they were walking to the ruins that had been pinpointed as Ancient design. It was thought to be another Ancient outpost in the Pegasus system and the prospect had turned into a fight as to whose team would get to check it out.
Colonel Sheppard claimed the right as the senior city military officer. As they were gearing up, he admitted to Teyla that if he didn't, they'd listen to Rodney complain for the next week.
Of course, to reach the ruins, they had to walk through several miles of dense forest by foot. Even an Atlantis 'jumper couldn't make it through the heavy undergrowth.
She listened as Colonel Sheppard continued to grill Ronan about what he'd seen. Ronan answered in his usual easy tones, but there were undercurrents to their interaction that concerned her more than she allowed to show.
Teyla was fond of her teammates - all of them. She and Aiden had been good friends before he was infected with the Wraith enzyme and would not give up the power. Dr. McKay might not think much of her people's technology but he was more than willing to explain anything to her - perhaps using rather more words and self-aggrandizement than necessary, but that was his personality - and would 'dumb it down' far enough for her to understand. And she understood Ronan's feelings of isolation and difference; in a city full of personnel from Earth, they were two who did not belong and were similar in that distinction.
And then there was John Sheppard.
Her relationship with him had grown over the last year, beginning with professional trust and moving towards personal trust. She suspected that his initial response to her had been because he considered her a good-looking young woman as much as a potential ally for his people. As time went on, she had moved from 'trusted team-mate' to 'trusted friend' in his estimation: both titles of which she was proud.
What he had brought up between them while under the influence of the retrovirus was something that Teyla had not been ready to face.
He was an attractive man; Teyla was not immune to that, but there was no need to dwell on it, no need to take it beyond friends. He was content to admire, she was content to admire, they both wished to retain the status quo. It was easier that way.
It was more difficult after the kiss. While he had not intended such an action, he had acted it out, and now the door had been forced, she could not find a way to shut it. If yesterday's questions about Ronan were any indication, Colonel Shep-- John could not find a way to shut that door in his mind, either.
John seemed to be struggling in balancing the personal and professional aspects of his interaction with Ronan, especially after coming to the conclusion that his newest team-member was interested in Teyla.
Teyla was not so sure. Ronan had made some comments that seemed to indicate that he was interested. However, Teyla retained the impression that he was merely seeking commonality at this stage. Teasing aside, she felt that Ronan was not interested in her, just in someone who resonated with his own experience in this place full of strange and different people.
She put away her drink bottle, absently listening as Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay argued about the possible technological finds available in an Ancient ship hangar.
Something flickered on the edge of her senses, the faintest of forebodings, and she stood and walked several paces away, leaving her teammates behind the better to listen.
"Teyla?"
Even as she held up one hand to silence him, she felt the buzzing begin in her head. Wraith ships had just come through the Stargate.
"The Wraith are here."
Colonel Sheppard swore. "You're sure?"
"Yes." She didn't elaborate. "Through the Stargate." It had come upon her too fast and too strong to be ships coming down through space.
McKay froze. "What? Here? Why? It's a deserted planet, why would they come--"
"McKay," Sheppard warned. He glanced up at the fragments of sky visible between the leaves of the tree canopy. Teyla could see the calculation in his eyes. They were too far to make it back to the ship before the Wraith darts arrived, and the woods would be no protection if the Wraith detected them.
"Okay," he said, "change of plan. We're going to head over to the spaceport Ronan saw. Let's hope his eyes weren't deceiving him and that it has shielding."
"But..."
"Ronan, lead the way."
"But what about the ruins?"
"We can check out the ruins after the Wraith are gone," said Colonel Sheppard, indicating the direction in which Ronan had started off. "Now move, McKay!"
Teyla fell into rearguard position as Colonel Sheppard hurried Dr. McKay along, explaining things in a low undertone.
"We won't get back to the 'jumper in time, but the spaceport might have shielding - if we can make it there!"
"I was just asking..."
"Don't ask, Rodney. Just run."
They'd only gone a few hundred yards when they heard the whine of a Wraith dart to the right.
Run.
There was little hope of outrunning the dart, but if they could reach the relative shelter of the buildings...
The proximity of the Wraith dart prickled down her spine. It was close and coming back for them. Teyla caught up with Colonel Sheppard and Rodney, one hand on each of their vests, as she hauled them aside, out of the way of the dematerialising beam. Ronan was too far ahead for her to do anything more than cry his name.
"Ronan!"
His senses were nearly as good as hers when it came to the Wraith. As the shimmering beam of light swept past them, missing Rodney's foot by mere inches, Ronan dived to the other side and rolled out of the way. He was on his feet again in moments, coming towards them and hauling Teyla up with one strong yank.
Ronan glanced up at the sky as she reached out to help Colonel Sheppard up. "Why are they here? There's no-one else on the planet."
"They're hunting us," said Colonel Sheppard.
"Must be some kind of a trigger that we set of," McKay said as he picked himself up and began dusting himself. "Maybe some kind of a sensor that lets them know--"
Teyla took his shoulder and prodded him on towards the spaceport, "Speculate later," she suggested. "They will be back."
The dart whined past, barely visible overhead. Teyla twitched and saw the Colonel watching her.
"We'd better get back moving again," he said. "Ronan."
Ronan turned to look at Teyla, then nodded and set off again. Rodney grumbled a little, but with some prodding from Colonel Sheppard, he moved. Teyla indicated she would take rearguard again, and while the Colonel looked as though he wanted to argue, then nodded.
She was relieved that he was going to trust her instincts. The Wraith presence was a buzzing in her mind, heavy with the dread of years of cullings. She had no energy or time to argue with him right now.
They moved through the forest, listening for the dart that swooped past again and again.
Two more passes came dangerously close to them. The first time, they saw the beam coming towards them and scrambled to get out of its way. The second time, it was Ronan who hauled Colonel Sheppard out of the way of the beam path while Teyla dragged Dr. McKay aside.
"Not that I don't like you, Teyla," Rodney said when he picked himself up again. "But I don't suppose you could grip just a little more gently? My abilities lie in the brains department, not in brawn."
"I could leave you in the path of the beam," she told him as they moved out again.
"Well, yes. You could. But you wouldn't, would you?"
"McKay," Colonel Sheppard barked. "Move!"
"Moving! Moving! Geeze."
The passes were getting closer together - sweeping the area with unnerving accuracy.
"Do they know where we are?" Ronan asked as they dodged another one.
Rodney looked up. "How could they know that?"
"Life-signs detectors."
"They don't have them."
"You sure?" They dodged another pass.
"Well, no, I'm not sure," Rodney snapped. "But we could always ask, you know, after they beam us up into the hiveship..."
As they discovered during the next pass, their concern shouldn't have been about being beamed up, as facing what was beamed down.
Colonel Sheppard had his gun up and was firing upon one of the Wraith even as they raised their stunner weapons. Ronan had his gun out and shot another in the chest, dodging around a tree. Teyla lifted her weapon up and got off a couple of rounds, but was forced behind a tree as a stunner blast rolled through the air where she'd been standing a moment before.
She heard more shots - stunner and guns, and ducked back around the tree.
Four Wraith were down. So was Rodney.
Colonel Sheppard swore as Ronan crouched over the scientist and checked him. "Close range hit. He's going to be out for a while."
"And they're still looking for us," muttered the Colonel as the dart screamed overhead.
Ronan glanced at her then back at Sheppard. "If you need, we can run interference."
John looked up at them. "No. We stick together."
Another dart screamed by, depositing more Wraith, and both Ronan and Teyla covered as the Colonel dragged McKay behind a tree.
"And if sticking together gets us killed?" Ronan snarled as he shot down another Wraith.
"Then we'll all die together!"
Teyla blinked as she gunned down the last Wraith. That was fatalistic, coming from Colonel Sheppard. "Colonel, separated, we have a better chance of all making it back. Rodney is injured and will not recover for some time. We need to be somewhere safe."
"Which is why we're headed to the spaceport."
Ronan frowned slightly. "Right now, we're not headed anywhere." He frowned as the dart screamed nearby. "And they know where we are."
Colonel Sheppard looked at her. "Teyla?"
"We will keep in radio contact," she said. "Get Rodney to safety."
There was a moment when he appeared to struggle with the decision, and then nodded. "Take care."
She felt the concern in his gaze like his hand on her shoulder. "You, too." Then she and Ronan jogged off into the forest.
What followed was a complicated game of tag-and-dodge, made edgy by the constant passes of the Wraith ship and their concern for Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay. The leaf cover made shooting at the dart difficult, but they did their best, splitting up and meeting back together again as they evaded the Wraith.
As she pulled another clip from her flak jacket, she reflected that at least she need not worry about Ronan's ability to handle himself. She need not even worry about him being taken; the Wraith could not feed off him, and even if they once again made him a runner, this time, he had somewhere to run to, people he could trust.
Here, she only had to watch out for herself.
And hope that John and Dr. McKay had reached the spaceport.
Her radio hissed. "Teyla? Ronan?"
She slammed the clip into the gun. "Here, Colonel."
"Teyla, you okay?"
"We are fine. Rodney?"
"Still out. We're in the spaceport - tell Ronan he was right." There was a slight echo to the sound of his voice. "Now get back here."
Ronan glanced over at her as he dropped to the ground. "Curfew called?"
Teyla laughed in spite of herself. "So it seems. He is concerned." She flipped the safety catch onto her gun and began heading back at a steady lope, Ronan easily keeping up with her.
The dart soared by again, the beam missing them by inches. At least no more Wraith were being materialised down; that was one thing about which they didn't have to worry.
"He's concerned about you."
Ronan's words startled her, but she kept her pace, listening for the dart, stretching her senses for the hum and buzz of the ship and its pilot in her mind. "He has concern for all his team."
"Yeah, but specifically about you. I've noticed."
Did he have to sound so smug about it?
She put on her most censorious tone. "This is neither the time nor the place to discuss such things."
"Why not?" They ran right, ducking and weaving through the foliage as the dart screamed back overhead. "Priorities become important when you're on the run."
Teyla leapt a fallen tree, slightly envious as Ronan cleared it with barely a hitch. "You presume that this is a priority."
"Isn't it?" His dreadlocks swung as he glanced at her. "Do you like him?"
"That is not a question you have a right to ask."
He grinned, like a mischievous child. "Maybe not. I can still ask." The dart was coming back, and seeing where it's path led, they split, separating around the tree as they made their way back towards the point where they'd left Colonel Sheppard and Rodney. "You can still answer."
"Not now," she snapped, squinting through the filtered light of the forest. Was that the shape and form of buildings through the trees?
It was. Five minutes later, they were inside what must have been an Ancient outpost, complete with two ships that lit up when John ran his hand over the consoles.
"Only two," Ronan said as the hatch closed up.
"Two more than we presently have - now strap in."
They flew out of there like the 'bat outta hell' that Aiden had referred to more than once, bringing down the Wraith dart on the plain before the Stargate before flying back through to Atlantis.
Back in Atlantis, they hovered around, waiting for the verdict on Rodney.
Dr. Weir refused to let Colonel Sheppard go back to pick up the other 'jumpers. He was all set to argue her down when Dr. Beckett took one look at them and decided that they should be put through their post-gate inspection.
Not even Colonel Sheppard's protests got him out of that one, and the glance he shot Teyla was exasperated.
When she turned to follow the medical technician assigned to her, she glimpsed Ronan's smirk before she headed over to the cubicle assigned her.
It was nothing more than a quick check-up. The woman salved a couple of scrapes, picked splinters out of her arm, and spoke easily of the gossip in the base while Teyla listened and laughed at the escapades of the others in the city.
And when she jumped off the bed and went out to see if Rodney's state had changed, Ronan fell into step beside her. "You never answered my question."
Do you like him?
He seemed more amused than dismayed by her evasion, and Teyla glared at him as they passed into the room where their teammate lay sprawled over one of the beds. "I said it was not..." She trailed off when she spotted John propping one wall of the room. "How is he?"
John shrugged. "He'll survive. They make 'em tough on Earth." He looked from Teyla to Ronan to Teyla. "You headed off to the showers?"
"I am," Teyla said, uncomfortably aware that he was looking at her and Ronan, and that Ronan was watching them both. "If you will excuse me, I will return later to see Dr. McKay."
The formality made things easier for her in the face of John's watchfulness. Ronan did not.
"Teyla."
She turned. "Ronan."
"You didn't answer the question."
She looked from his amused expression to John's carefully neutral one from beside Rodney's bed, and knew that her skin flushed as she looked back at Ronan.
It would be possible to lie. To lie to him and therefore to Colonel Sheppard. She could deflect his question yet again and wait for the next time it came up - and it would come up. Ronan had learned persistence as the Wraith had taught him hatred.
So she answered him, even and calm. She wouldn't forget his pushing and he would regret it the next time it came to fighting.
"The answer is yes." And with that, Teyla turned on her heel and strode off, leaving both men behind her.
--
To: Part Three
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