Episode tag for S4's "Quarantine" – about a week after all those awkward moments...
"Ah!" Ronon dropped his sticks to the floor of the gym, his hands flying to his forehead where a two-inch gash had just been cut.
"Oh, damn!"
"That hurt, Sheppard!"
"Oh, and the fifteen whacks to my legs didn't?"
"You hit my face!"
"Hey, you let your guard down. C'mon, let's get you to the infirmary."
John dropped his sticks to the floor as Ronon pulled his fingers away from the wound, shooting a vicious glare towards Sheppard as he realised he was not only bleeding, but it was a lot. The liquid slid down his forehead and into his eyebrow, dripping down the side of his face as John opened the gym door and led the way to the infirmary.
"What the heck have you done now?" Dr Keller asked as Sheppard opened the door of the infirmary. "He got in a lucky shot." Ronon commented, his standard argument as to why he was bleeding every time he saw Jennifer.
"Awful lot of lucky shots lately, Ronon, this is the fourth time this week. How's the arm?"
Ronon looked down at the bandage around his forearm and realised that it was tinged with red, too.
"Uh-" He tried to hide the injury from Keller, pulling the arm behind his body.
"You've popped the stitches again, haven't you? John, what did I say about sparring with open wounds?"
"Well, you weren't specific..." John said, staring at his boots.
"Out. Now. Before I give you an injury that will require a return to Earth." John looked at Jennifer, prepared to laugh, but saw her mouth set in a determined line and decided not to risk the wrath of the blonde doctor.
"See you for breakfast." He told Ronon before high-tailing it out of the infirmary, the doors sliding shut with a woosh as he vanished up the hall.
Ronon sat on a gurney, not quite sure what to do or say. This was the first time since the quarantine lockdown that he'd been alone with Jennifer, he'd deliberately avoided the infirmary and had remained stubbornly silent as both Sheppard and Teyla had questioned him about the doctor.
"You've got to stop getting hit in the head, you know. You could have a concussion."
"I feel fine, doc."
"Just lie down."
He kicked his feet up, crossing his legs at the ankles and reclining on the bed, stretching out his arm and keeping the other hand on his forehead in an effort to stem the bleeding.
Less than a minute later Dr Keller was back, holding a tray of equipment and giving Ronon what she hoped was a stern look.
"Move your hand, I have to get a look at that. Yep, you're going to need stitches." He wiped his hand absently on his pants as Jennifer cleaned up the wound on his forehead.
He'd closed his eyes as she removed the blood, but they flew open and his free hand shot up to grab her wrist as she dabbed antiseptic into the gash.
"Hey! You want this to keep bleeding or not?" she asked, and he was surprised that she didn't seem put off or distracted, let alone scared, by his actions.
"Sorry." He released her arm and instead gripped the mattress as she kept disinfecting the cut, gritting his teeth and trying to refrain from crying out.
"Okay, that's the worst of it over. I'm going to put some anaesthetic in there so I can stitch you up. Hold still."
"Sure thing, doc."
"You know, Ronon, you can call me Jen."
"Okay... Jen."
He saw a small smile as she held up a syringe, extracting some liquid from a sterile bottle and tapping it a few times, squirting some of the anaesthetic into the air before looming over him.
"This might sting, too."
He just nodded before bracing himself against the bed, pressing his head into the mattress in an effort to stay still. He felt the needle prick his skin just above the injury, then below. Five more jabs later she seemed to be done and was pressing a pad of gauze to the still-bleeding wound in an effort to stop any more blood dripping into his hair.
She stood there, her palm over his face and the other hand on his neck to feel his pulse, her eyes on her watch as she waited for the anaesthetic to take effect.
Without thinking, without waiting to consider the consequences, Ronon reached up his free hand and gripped her wrist and pulled her hand down slightly, pressing his lips to her palm for a moment before returning her fingers to the gauze.
He saw the look of complete confusion as it flashed across her face, before she wiped her expression back to neutral and cleared her throat.
"Your pulse is a bit quick."
"Yeah." He murmured, his hand still gripping her forearm. She glanced down to where he was touching her and her expression softened. Taking this as encouragement, Ronon began to slide his thumb up and down the soft skin, watching as a smile crept across Jen's features.
"That anaesthetic should have taken effect by now. Let me stitch you up."
"Okay."
"You have to let go of my hand."
His eyes flicked up to where he was still gripping her wrist and he slowly released it, trailing his fingers down her arm and settling his hand on his own chest.
His eyes stayed open, focused on her face as her hands moved deftly to put him back together, stitching the skin together before covering it with a patch of gauze and a length of bandage, careful to avoid his eyebrows with the sticky parts of the plasters before moving her attention to his arm.
"Well at least you haven't torn anything out, looks like it's just bled through. I'll replace the bandage and that should do it. You can sit up if you like."
Ronon watched as she went over to the biohazard box to dispose of the bloodied gauze, sitting himself up and inspecting the uncovered wound on his forearm. She was right- all of the stitches were intact, but there was a tear behind one of them that had caused the bleeding. He was poking at the wound, trying to move the stitches aside to see how deep the cut was, when Jennifer came back.
"Hey! Do you want that to get infected? Keep your fingers out of it."
"Sorry." He dropped his hand to the mattress as Jen stood to one side of him and began to re-bandage the arm.
"Damn. Hold still, I forgot the closer. Here, keep this in place." She indicated the end of the bandage and he gripped it, keeping it still while she went back to her equipment locker to get a closer.
He deliberately shifted himself while she had her back to him, pulling one leg up onto the bed so that no matter what she did when she came back in order to get good access to his arm she'd have to stand, essentially, between his legs. Ever the predator, Ronon watched her movements closely, averting his gaze as she turned around, his eyes flicking back up to look into hers as she approached.
She was almost at the gurney when she noticed his change in position and seemed to stumble, almost tripping forward. Ronon reached out to steady her but she kept herself upright and stepped right up to him, eyes downcast, and fixed the bandage in place. She went to step backwards but was stopped by a strong hand on her wrist.
She raised her head and barely had time to register how close he was before he'd pressed his lips to hers, his hands sliding around her waist and his leg dropping off the bed so that she was effectively trapped between his knees.
It took Jen a few seconds to recover, but when she did she decided that if he was going to do this, she might as well join in. She reached up to caress his neck, the fingers of one hand tangling among his dreadlocks as she kissed him back.
It didn't take long for Ronon's mouth to become more demanding, his tongue parting her lips and his strong arms pulling her close, one hand dropping to her backside and gripping, hard. He heard the doctor let out a small noise of protest and relaxed his hand, not breaking contact but instead sliding his hand up her back until he was holding her waist.
He pushed himself forward on the bed and his feet contacted the ground, as soon as he could stand up he tightened his grasp on Jennifer's waist and lifted her bodily up against himself, she reacted instinctively, wrapping her legs around his hips, grinding down on the hard lump she could feel forming beneath his waistband.
He shifted his position, dropping one hand beneath her and lifting the other one to steady her in the centre of her back and she tipped her head, exposing her neck as he trailed kisses down towards her collarbone.
"Ronon..." she moaned, and he pressed his mouth to the juncture of neck and shoulder, wanting to hear more of the delicious little noises she was making, grunting deep in his throat as she pulled on his hair, fingers tangled through the dreadlocks at the nape of his neck.
It took another minute or so, but eventually Jennifer managed to regain control of her higher functions. It was difficult, Ronon was holding her up against his body and doing amazing things to the skin of her neck, but she knew that there was no way they should be doing what they were doing in the infirmary, even in the middle of the night.
"Ronon... we can't do this here..." she murmured, trying to pull his mouth away from her body by gripping the hair at the crown of his head.
"Why not?" he asked, pressing his lips to her ear and letting his voice come out as a hoarse whisper, sending a shiver up her spine.
"Someone might come in..."
"Yeah, so?" He ran his tongue up the edge of her ear, biting down gently on the top of it and dragging his teeth down to her earlobe, extracting a low groan from the woman in his hands.
"A bed's a lot more comfortable than this gurney." She managed to get out after a few seconds. Ronon considered this, his lips against her neck, finding a pulse point and concentrating on that.
"Take me to bed, Ronon." She gasped, making his cock twitch in response. Exactly what he wanted to hear, he turned his head and kissed her mouth before lowering her to the floor, not breaking the kiss until the last second.
"Your quarters or mine?" he asked, his voice rough.
"Yours."
