Coorin was about to lead the Atlantis team out of the observation room when Vayler stopped her.
"Coorin, she's doing it again!" he said, putting an image on the larger view screen.
John and his friends were not prepared for what they saw. On the screen was an image of a woman they had once known – a woman they had all thought dead. Jessarelle stood in a room full of people, backed into a corner, a knife in her hands, screaming at them in a language John did not understand but recognized easily. She was speaking Wraith. Coorin stood rooted to the spot in shock.
"Why now – she hasn't reverted back in almost a year." She rushed out of the door with John and his team right on her heels. The door was open and the room crowded.
"I wish I could understand what she was saying – she always sounds so angry." Coorin almost whispered.
"I can understand her." Tayla was looking at Jessarelle when she said this. All eyes turned to her. "I can speak their language."
"Well?" was Rodney's answer. "Care to translate."
Tayla turned to look in Jessarelle's direction. "She is threatening them, telling them to come no closer or she will hurt someone. She demands to know where…"
"What Tayla?" John asked. "What is she demanding to know?"
"She's demanding to know where Tyre is." Tayla looked at John.
"Tyre cannot still be alive!" John said looking at Ronon. "I saw him die."
Coorin had been listening to this and interjected. "Tyre is the name of Jessarelle's son, he died three years ago."
Everyone turned to look at Coorin, stunned. No one could even think of anything to say to that. Meanwhile Jessarelle's heated demands were getting worse inside the room – she was screaming now.
"A son?" This whisper came from Ronon. Coorin turned to him.
"Yes." Coorin looked closely at him as if seeing him for the first time. "You know her?" Coorin gestured towards Jessarelle. Ronon ignored her, just staring at Jessarelle and so she turned to the other members. Confirmation came from Dr Keller.
"Yes, we know her. We thought she died three years ago." Jennifer said. "If we had known…"
"I will be happy to tell you all about Tyre and Jesserelle's life here. But we need to get her calmed down and preferably sedated." She shook her head. "She hasn't done something like this in over a year."
Before anyone could say or do anything further, Ronon took his knife from its sheath and stepped into the room.
"Ronon, wait." John said but it was too late, Jessarelle had already seen him. He stood head and shoulders above everyone and was difficult to miss. The change in her behaviour was astounding. She stood upright almost as if they were the only two people in the room and sneered at him. The other people in the room, on seeing Ronon and his knife, left quickly.
"A Sateden." Jessarelle almost laughed. "Well, this is a rare pleasure. Didn't we wipe your kind out?" She gave a satisfied smile when Ronon growled at her. "Yes. And I remember you too. Ronon Dex, isn't it? I know the Queen whose pet you were." Ronon stopped dead, staring at her. He had never heard this before. "She was VERY upset when you managed to escape. She had half her hive slaughtered out of pure frustration. I must say, I was most upset as well. You were the best sport we'd had in years." She looked down at her hand and smiled, licking her lips. "As I recall, you tasted pretty good, too."
Ronon lost all control. "Well, now she's gone and done it." John said as he and Tayla rushed into the room to keep Ronon from killing Jessarelle. But they were too late. Ronon lunged forward with his knife, attacking Jessarelle with the full force of his rage. But she countered him easily. She attacked him back and it soon became apparent to those watching that she knew what she was doing.
Jessarelle drew first blood – something unheard of with Ronon – which only pissed Ronon off even more. The angrier he got, the happier – if you can call it that – Jessarelle got. She enjoyed his pain and anger, thrived on it.
John decided enough was enough and asked Coorin if she had something that could knock Jessarelle out. Coorin nodded and showed him a syringe she held in her hand. Looking back at the two combatants he said, seriously, "Might need one for Ronon, too."
John calmly took out his pistol, aimed it at Jessarelle and pulled the trigger.
"JOHN!" Tayla and Jennifer screamed at the same time.
"Relax." He said, not looking at them, but grabbing hold of Ronon, as Coorin rushed over to Jessarelle and injected her with the sedative. "I shot her in the shoulder." He was struggling to keep Ronon in hand. "A little help here?"
Jennifer rushed over to where Coorin was checking Jessarelle's wound. John, Tayla and Rodney were having a difficult time backing Ronon away from Jessarelle. He was growling and cursing and struggling to get free. "Let go of me. I'm going to kill her! You hear me, Wraith? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" John slammed Ronon into the wall so hard that his friend had to take a second to refocus his eyes. "No you're not." He waited for Ronon to focus on him. John spoke softly. "You need to know about Tyre, Ronon. You need to find out about your son." That calmed Ronon down like a bucket of ice water. He froze where he stood and looked over to where Jessarelle lay on the floor, bleeding, Coorin and Jennifer administering medical attention.
She was still awake, although the sedative was kicking in quickly. And she was still in a little shock at being shot. From where he stood Ronon could see her body shaking and tears stream down her face. She was crying. The realization of the last few minutes suddenly hit him. They had been fighting – he could have killed her! He had wanted to kill her.
-o0o-
Jessarelle looked around through a haze of tears. Her head felt thick and fuzzy and her shoulder hurt. Coorin was there and… Had she finally lost her mind? "Jennifer?"
"Hey, Jess." Jennifer smiled at her, reaching out and wiping the sweat from Jessarelle's forehead. "Just close your eyes and let the sedative take effect." Jessarelle looked up at Coorin and then looked at the blood stained cloth in her hands, as she bent over and pressed the cloth to her shoulder. Pain shot through her arm but her mind barely registered it. Her brain was having trouble doing anything and Jessarelle had to fight to stay awake. "Don't fight it, dear. Just let go." Came Coorin's soothing voice.
"What happened?" she mumbled. "What did I do?" Jessarelle was really struggling to remember, images and thoughts just slipping through her fingers, like water, leaving her as soon as they came. She couldn't grab hold of any one thought. Images of Tyre, her darling son, flashed past, as well as images of Ronon, and Wraith and other things. Things said that she couldn't comprehend. As she lay there, sobbing, she heard Ronon's voice in the distance: Let go of me. I'm going to kill her! You hear me, Wraith? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!
"Ronon…" she must be dreaming, she thought. Jennifer, Ronon. She looked in the direction that the voice had come from to see John Sheppard and Tayla Emmagan holding Ronon against a wall. He was reaching for her and then he focused on John as the other man said something to him that Jessarelle couldn't hear. He then looked at her and his face was the last thing she saw as the darkness of unconsciousness swept over her.
-o0o-
Coorin looked up after her and Jennifer had stopped the bleeding and Jessarelle had finally passed out. She had heard John's words to Ronon: You need to find out about your son. Looking at the man now she could see the resemblance. Tyre had his father's eyes. So this was the man who would have been proud of his son – something Jessarelle had said as her infant son breathed his last breath in her arms. Sleep my little warrior – you fought bravely to stay alive this long – your father would be proud of you. She had said this calmly. And when Tyre had stopped breathing she had carried on singing to him and rocking him, refusing to give his little body over to Coorin, so that she could prepare him for burial.
Coming back to the present Coorin looked from Ronon to Jessarelle. Sure that John had Ronon under control she asked some of her people to take Jessarelle to her room so that she could get some rest. As the orderly's carried Jessarelle out Coorin stopped next to John and looked at Ronon sternly. "We need to talk." This was all she said and walked off, making it plain that she expected to be followed.
John herded a now stunned and subdued Ronon in front of him as he followed Coorin to her office, with the rest of the team bringing up the rear. They all gathered there and the door was closed, giving them complete privacy.
Coorin sat behind her desk and fixed each of them with a stern look, Ronon baring the brunt of it. "Would someone please explain to me why you have come to my compound, as my guests, and have attacked and almost killed an obviously mentally disturbed young woman? Someone you know actually."
There was silence and Jennifer decided to answer. "If I may, Colonel?" John nodded.
"Chief Physician Coorin," Jennifer started stepping forward. "Please understand that we are all shocked to see Jessie. As I said before, we thought she was dead. If we had known she was alive we would have come for her." Jennifer sat down across from Coorin and asked: "You called her mentally disturbed. May I ask why?"
"Well you have seen her today – she used to have episodes where she would think she was a Wraith Queen. I have no idea where she learned the language or the mannerisms – I shudder to think that she might have been their prisoner at some stage – but that would explain her mental instability."
Jennifer looked at John and he took over. "Coorin, Jessarelle thinks she is a Wraith Queen, because she actually used to be one." Coorin looked at John as if he had grown another head in her presence. She looked like she was going to be ill.
"Then the rumours are true – it IS possible." She dropped her head into her hands.
"Very." Rodney said from where he was standing in the corner. "As a matter of fact we did it to the man who did it to her – although, Michael didn't quite turn out the way we planned."
"MICHAEL!" the name brought Coorin's head snapping up. "YOU created Michael!"
"Ah!" Rodney squirmed. "You've heard of him."
"Of course I have. Because I have treated many of the people left behind in the wake of his destruction. He has ruined countless lives!" Rodney retreated further and further into the corner he was standing in as Coorin's voice got louder and louder.
"Coorin," Jennifer stepped in front of her. "We need to focus on Jessie." She waited for Coorin to sit again. "We found Jessie in one of Michael's abandoned labs. We didn't know at the time who, or what she was, or why Michael had abandoned her there, but she also had no idea who she was. She only knew her name was Jessarelle because that was what Michael always called her."
"She quickly recovered and found a home at Atlantis, and friends. She was accepted and loved by us. One day about a year after we found her she woke up screaming. From then on nothing was ever the same. She had regained her memory and knew what she had been and what Michael had done to her."
Jennifer looked down at her hands and was silent for a moment. Tayla took up the story.
"It was difficult for all of us. We had known her, were her friends and loved her. People were unsure of how to handle her. She was caught between two worlds: she remembered her cruelty and the enjoyment she had gotten from being a Wraith Queen, but now she had found a new life, with peace and joy and friends and acceptance."
"At times she yearned for the power she had once held – on those days many stayed away from her – she would be cruel and demanding and superior. And then other days she would be the Jessarelle we all had known and loved. Caring, compassionate, always ready to help, always ready to give whatever information she could about the Wraith, trying to win our trust again, although due to the new information, many avoided her. She finally started withdrawing into herself. Spending more and more time alone and became more and more the Wraith Queen she no longer was. She pushed those of us that still wanted to help her further and further away until we no longer could."
Jennifer took up the story again, tears streaming down her face. "She was my friend – we would spend hours together and I told her many things about my home. But she had changed so much and it was our fault." John put his hand on Jennifer's shoulder. "Finally our superior had no choice but to confine her to her quarters. As a sign of respect for the person she had once been – our friend – he did not have her put in a cell – she would still have all the comforts of Atlantis – she was just under house arrest."
"This all took three months. We were on a scouting mission with some information she had given us when we were attacked by Wraith. Ronon was captured and many were hurt. She had not given us the wrong information – it was just that things had changed since she had been captured by Michael – a new Queen had taken over Jessarelle's territory after she disappeared."
"Somehow she managed to convince us to send her with us to extract Ronon." John carried on telling the story. "If I had known what she had been planning, I would have locked her up in chains in a cell myself." He said this looking at Ronon, who nodded once in acknowledgement of John's silent and unspoken apology. "As Jennifer and Tayla said, she was our friend and many of us still cared about her."
"I remember when she walked into the Gate Room. She was dressed like a Wraith Queen and most of the men had to pick their jaws up from the ground." John smiled, remembering. "We got to the planet and the Wraith compound and Jessarelle asked if we trusted her. I said yes without hesitation as she had so far given no indication of being in one of her Wraith moods. She calmly walked out of hiding and up to a Wraith. The guy never knew what hit him." John looked at Ronon. "You would have been proud of her. In a flash she had him down on his knees and snapped his neck. He hadn't even had a chance to get a sound out. She took his weapon and motioning us to follow her, calmly walked into the Wraith compound." John was still amazed that someone of her small stature managed to do what she did that day… and survive.
"When we walked in she barked something in Wraith and that took the Wraith by surprise – seeing a human dressed as one of their queens and speaking their language – it gave us time to take them out. Well all the gun fire and weapon discharges got everyone's attention and we were soon in the company of the new Wraith Queen. Jessarelle exchanged…pleasantries… with her and shortly Ronon was brought out. There was more heated discussion – all in Wraith – and finally Jessarelle walked up to the Queen holding out her hands. The Queen grudgingly handed over Ronon's weapons, which Jessarelle gave back to Ronon and then stood in front of me."
"She barely reached my shoulder but the way she looked at me she was every inch a Wraith Queen again. In a voice that practically dripped acid she informed me that my team and I were free to leave. She thanked us for our hospitality and told us that if we valued our lives we would never come back. I tried to argue with her until she pulled the same stunt on me that she had on the Wraith guard. I was on my knees before I could blink and she had my head in a vice grip. She glared at everyone and repeated herself. But I could hear it in her voice: she was desperate for us to leave – that our freedom was going to cost her dearly." John just shook his head. "We were escorted to the Stargate. That's the last we saw of her." John looked directly at Coorin.
"When we got home there was a message that she had left us before we had departed on the mission. It said that whatever happened we were to let her go and not come after her. She had planned this; she knew what she was going to do and that it was the only way to get Ronon back. She also told us that once she had negotiated our release and we were safe that she would probably be tortured and killed – fed upon as she used to feed on others – that we were to accept this and move on with our lives."
The story was complete. Coorin looked at each of the Atlantis team members before her and could see their regret and pain at losing a friend in their eyes. Her eyes stopped at Ronon. He had not contributed to the narrative but had stood with his back against the wall and his arms crossed at his chest. He had been looking at his feet the entire time but now looked at her. His eyes were filled with a pain that she had seen in Jesserelle's many times over the last three years. No matter the circumstances of their separation or reunion, this man had loved her once and she had loved him. She stared him straight in the eyes.
"She gave up her life, and ultimately – although she didn't know it at the time – the life of her son – your son, to save your life." Ronon flinched as if he had been shot. "That should tell you something about her."
Coorin stood and looked out of the window behind her desk.
"I suppose you want to know what has happened the last three years." She didn't wait for a reply. "We send out parties to a nearby ice planet to gather ice for fresh water and other uses. It was one such party that found Jessarelle lying in the snow not far from the Gate. The little she had on was torn and tattered and she had been beaten and tortured to within an inch of her life. She was barely alive when they brought her in."
"It took us days to get her out of danger which is when we find out about her pregnancy – she was already three months along at that stage." Coorin turned to look at the people she was speaking to, leaning with her back against the window. "Even though she was out of danger and was healing nicely she didn't regain consciousness for another five months, in which time her child grew." She looked at Ronon. "He was a big boy – we at first thought she was having twins. She finally woke up one morning. Disoriented and in shock, especially when she noticed her large abdomen. We asked her if she could remember anything of where she came from and what had happened to her. She said no but I could see from the look on her face that she was lying. We nursed her and watched over her and a month later she woke up screaming in the middle of the night – she had gone into labour." Coorin closed her eyes, remembering.
"She had a difficult labour but after six hours the child was born. He looked healthy and strong but something was wrong. He had trouble breathing and was very quiet. He didn't cry or scream. Jessarelle named him Tyre. I asked her if that was his father's name. She said no – Tyre had been named after someone whom the child's father had respected – a friend – lost in battle."
"Tyre died in his mother's arms two days later. She knew his time was near and sang to him and spoke to him. Sleep my little warrior – you fought bravely to stay alive this long – your father would be proud of you. Those were the last words that her son heard before he died." She looked at Ronon and saw that a single tear was making its way down his face.
"She was inconsolable from then on. She refused to speak of Tyre or his father. She would spend her days sitting by Tyre's grave. Doing nothing – just sitting there. It was then that her episodes began. They were much as you described them. One day she would be kind and gentle, the next cruel and dispassionate. I spent long hours with her on those off days, taking the brunt of her outbursts. Eventually, the periods between bad days stretched out until she had herself once again under control. It has been a year since her last episode. Instead of leaving once she was rehabilitated she chose to stay."
With her story finished, Coorin sat back down at her desk. She was exhausted. Tayla spoke up. "What would have brought on another episode?" Coorin looked up at her and thought carefully.
"Everyone here knew that a team from Atlantis was coming. Also… today is the anniversary of Tyre's death." Coorin sighed. "The combined stress of seeing all of you again – on today of all days – was probably too much for her."
No one knew what to say to that. John was the first to speak. "When will she be awake?"
Coorin thought this over. "Not for at least 24 hours. I gave her a very strong dose."
John looked around and made a decision: "Jennifer, will you mind staying behind until Jessie wakes up?"
"Of course not." was Jennifer's instant reply.
"OK, the rest of us will go report back to Atlantis. Coorin, with your permission, of course." Coorin nodded, smiling at Jennifer. "Of course, Colonel. You and your people are free and welcome to come and go as you please." She looked pointedly at Ronon. "I will have quarters prepared for any who wish to stay."
John also turned to look at Ronon. "What do you say, buddy? Staying or going."
Ronon looked at each of his team members and saw the concern and sympathy in their eyes. They knew. They had witnessed him getting closer to Jessarelle in the time she was with them. They had seen him do what he had promised he would never do again after his wife's death: They had seen him fall in love. But he had also seen shock in their eyes when they had learnt about Tyre. They had not realised that their relationship had gotten to the stage where they had created a life.
He remembered the night she got her memory back. They had been asleep – he had his arms wrapped around her. He woke up when she started struggling against him. She was still asleep but she was obviously fighting something. He shook her shoulder and she came instantly awake. She looked at him with wide eyes and then sprang out his arms and bed and grabbing his knife she backed into a corner. She started shouting at him and he had gone cold. She was shouting at him in Wraith. He recognized the language even though he couldn't understand it. He had advanced upon her and grabbed the hand holding the knife. She placed her other hand on his bare chest and after a few seconds pulled it back and stared at her palm. Realising that she couldn't feed she hissed and spat at him and started struggling and fighting. This all took a few minutes. Ronon got the knife away from Jessarelle and backed off, finding his communicator and calling for assistance.
John and Tayla showed up minutes later and she turned and screamed at them. Moving to attack them she caught her reflection in a mirror and this stopped her cold. Seeing herself standing there naked and very human seemed to snap her back. Ronon could almost see the change between her personalities physically. She reached out her feeding hand and touched her reflection's outstretched hand. Then she turned it towards her and stared at her palm. She looked up at Ronon then, tears running down her face. She walked towards him and he had stood still. She placed her feeding hand, on his chest as if to feed on him and stared at it. Ronon placed his hand over hers and held it there.
Jessarelle threw back her head and let out a heart breaking scream, sinking to her knees, her feeding hand stretched out above her head, still held in place by Ronon's hand. She kept on screaming as Ronon knelt in front of her, gathered her in his arms and just held her. She was still screaming when Jennifer arrived and administered a sedative.
After she had regained her memories, things changed drastically. She pulled away from him, avoided him and sometimes even pushed him away intentionally. Now, after today's incident he understood why. Jessarelle had never wanted him to know that they had already met; that they already knew each other. That she had hunted, tortured and fed on him when he had been a runner. Thinking back to those dark days in his life, sifting through all the Wraith faces that he could remember he tried, in vain, to pick hers out. Of course he knew he would find no resemblance.
He couldn't remember much from the day she had traded her life for his. He remembered hearing her voice and being handed his weapons. And then he was back in Atlantis and Sheppard told him what had happened and showed him the recording Jessie had made – she had made one for him too. She had told him how much she loved him and how sorry she was that she had pulled away from him. She had said that it had been for him – there were things about her that he didn't want to know and she couldn't bear to live in a world where he hated her. She asked for his forgiveness. And then it was over. She just wasn't there anymore.
"Ronon?" He heard John's voice as if at a distance. Refocusing on the people in the room and on the present he decided. "Staying." He said as he turned and walked out of the room.
-o0o-
Jennifer found Ronon a few hours later. He was crouched down next to something on the ground and as she approached realised immediately it was a grave stone. She stopped and started backing up. He had found his son's grave – he probably didn't want to be disturbed. As she turned he stood up and saw her.
"Jennifer." He didn't speak loudly, but in this quiet and peaceful place, Jennifer heard him clearly. She stopped and turned to face him.
"Sorry, Ronon. I'll come back later if you want to be alone." She stood a few meters away from him.
"No," he said as he went to sit at a bench near Tyre's grave. "Stay, please." He looked up at her as she sat down next to him.
"I'm sorry, Ronon." Jennifer whispered, taking Ronon's hand in hers. "I truly am."
Ronon kept quiet. He wasn't one to use words even on a good day. Everyone who knew him accepted him this way – he was Ronon, after all.
Jennifer was looking at him intently. He was struggling with something. He wanted to say something but he didn't know how. She gave him the time he needed. She just sat there holding his hand, looking at the garden around her, trying not to look at the tiny grave under the tree. She sat there and waited. They must have sat there for almost an hour before Ronon spoke again.
"I miss her." Those three words were all he said.
Jennifer looked at him sadly. "Do you still love her?" she asked, turning towards him.
Ronon seemed to think hard about her question and finally he nodded his head.
Now for the kicker... "Do you forgive her?"
Ronon looked at Jennifer sharply, anger flashing in his eyes briefly. She didn't need to hear his words to know the answer. "Maybe... one day." He got up and stood in front of his son's grave.
Jennifer stayed sitting on the bench. "What are you going to do?" she asked. Finally Ronon turned and looked at her.
"Take her home." He announced, walking towards the compound where Jessarelle lay sedated in her quarters.
-o0o-
Jessarelle woke up to darkness. She lay there listening, waiting. For what she didn't know. But she knew something was wrong. Something had happened. Her memories and thoughts were scattered and distant and she had to concentrate really hard to latch on to any one image – a process that ended up giving her a headache. Tyre... Atlantis... Ronon... they were just pieces that she couldn't make fit.
Suddenly all thought stopped as her senses registered her surroundings. Someone else was in her room with her. She couldn't see anything but as she lay very still she thought she could hear the steady rhythm of someone breathing in and out. It wasn't the steady, calm breathing of a sleeping person but whoever it was, was in control. It was her sense of smell that identified her intruder and Jessarelle closed her eyes tightly praying that she was hallucinating. It was a smell she would never forget: Leather, sweat and earth. She could picture the man the aroma belonged to. His dark brown hair hanging down past his shoulders; his chocolate brown eyes always able to see everywhere at once; his beard trimmed short; his broad, tanned shoulders and arms that could snap a grown man in two. How many of my soldiers fell to that fate? This thought came unbidden from a part of her mind she had worked so hard to lock away.
Yes, she knew the man in her room. She knew him intimately in fact. He had been her friend and her lover. He had been the father of her son. And he had been her enemy. With this thought she recalled her last encounter with him. You were the best sport we'd had in years... As I recall, you tasted pretty good, too. She moaned softly to herself as she remembered the things she had said to him, turning onto her side and pulling her knees up to her chest. Jessarelle ignored the pain in her shoulder. The pain ripping through her heart was cataclysmically worse. So now the dog knows! The voice of her past whispered. She closed her eyes tighter against this voice. So now he knew. She couldn't bear the thought of the pain she had caused him: both physically and emotionally.
She had no idea how long she lay like that, crying silent tears, when she felt strong, large hands on her shoulders, pulling her up, and strong, muscled arms wrapping themselves around her back, crushing her to a massive chest. Her silent tears turned into great, big sobs as Jessarelle did the only thing she could and reached up to wrap her arms around Ronon's neck.
She felt something in her shoulder tear and felt the blood that flowed. She had pulled her stitches. She didn't care. She was having trouble breathing as she buried her face in his shoulder, her lungs not working fast enough to keep up with her sobbing.
"I'm... sorry..." she finally managed to get out between large gulps of air. "I'm... sorry..." she kept on repeating until Ronon lifted her chin and kissed her gently, stopping her from trying to say anything further. She just reverted back to gulping in large lungfuls of air in order to get out her never ending supply of sobs.
-o0o-
It was some hours later that John went looking for his friend. Walking towards Jessarelle's quarters, he thought back over the last few years. Ronon had always been closed and guarded with his past. He never spoke of his wife or his home or the years he had spent as a runner. Smiling he thought: It's hard to get anything out of him. But Jessarelle had changed him. He had not become over talkative and you still had the feeling that Ronon Dex only spoke when it was something worth saying, but he smiled a lot more, and he had taken part more. As small and feminine as she was – she barely reached John's shoulder, and Ronon stood head and shoulders above him – she had managed to wrap the Satedan warrior around her finger and burrow her way into his heart.
It had destroyed Ronon when Jessie had regained her memory of being Wraith. All his memories of being a runner, of the destruction of Sateda, the death of his wife, had all come flooding back. He had felt an overwhelming sense of betrayal, not in terms of himself and Jessie, but in terms of himself and his dead wife. Not only had he fallen in love with someone else, but he had fallen in love with a Wraith Queen – the enemy that had caused her death. He instinctively treated Jessie differently, which caused Jessie to withdraw even more and Ronon felt guilty about that as well.
He had withdrawn back into himself - even further back into himself – and John had gotten a glimpse of what Ronon must have been like during his runner years. People avoided him and it got so bad eventually that Mr Wolsey threatened to have him confined to quarters, too – just as he had confined Jessie. The two of them were causing quite the disturbance.
But John's heart had gone out to Ronon yesterday. He had been reunited with Jessie, only to learn that her betrayal had run deeper than any thought possible. She had not only been an enemy but they had met before – she had hunted him as a runner; she had fed on him. John shivered at the thought, having had that experience.
Not only that but he had to learn that he had had a son, who had been born, lived two days and had died, all without his father present. John had seen Ronon with Tayla's son, Torin. He was good with kids, even though he would never admit to it. He would make a good father.
But here they were, all reunited. Jessie was hurt – John knew Ronon would make him pay at some stage for shooting Jessie in the shoulder – and she needed him. Despite the hatred and betrayal and the circumstances, Ronon had decided to stay. Jennifer said that Ronon had been with Jessie all night and that he wanted Jessie to come home. That was a good sign – although John was sure it wasn't going to be easy, what with their respective pasts to get through.
Ronon had gotten a second chance with Jessarelle and, after losing her and finding her; he had gotten a second chance at his second chance. A second chance…twice. John thought shaking his head as he got to Jessarelle's quarters. This was going to give him a headache.
He knocked softly and stuck his head around the door. Ronon was standing in the corner and Coorin was there checking on Jessarelle's shoulder wound. Ronon had said something as John had walked in and Jessarelle was laughing, which made Ronon smile and Coorin frown – she needed Jessarelle to sit still while she worked.
"That sounds good." He said, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. Jessarelle stopped laughing and looked at John intently, while Ronon just looked at Jessarelle worriedly. Coorin was just keeping an eye on everyone. There was an awkward silence as Coorin finished up.
"There you go dear. All patched up and ready to go. I will have a chat with Dr Keller about carrying on with your care." John had the feeling, as Coorin excused herself, that Jessarelle's shoulder wound wasn't the only care she would be discussing with Jennifer.
John turned back from watching Coorin leave and was unprepared for the open hand slap that landed on his face. He reached up and rubbed at his stinging cheek and looked down at Jessarelle. She was standing there, her long blonde hair pulled over one shoulder, hands on her hips, pale blue eyes flashing. Ronon stood unmoved, calmly leaning against the wall with his arms across his chest.
"I take it that's for shooting you?" he asked, working his jaw. This woman has quite the swing, he thought to himself. He would probably have a bruise in the morning. She gave a curt little nod. John bowed slightly at the waist. "You're welcome, Jessie." He said. "Next time I'll just let you kill each other."
Jessarelle went as white as a sheet. Nice move, dumb ass! John told himself, keeping his eyes on Ronon. He had not moved nor changed his expression which meant… well, John didn't know what it meant – but it couldn't be anything good.
John looked back down at Jessarelle. She stood on tip toe and kissed him on the same cheek she had slapped. John looked at her, stunned. "What was that for?" Holding his head in her hands, she whispered: "That was for keeping him safe." John couldn't help himself – he wrapped his arms around Jessarelle and gave her a huge hug. "What else could I do?" he asked her, kissing the top of her head and then letting go.
Ronon came over and took her hand. He had a canvas bag slung over his shoulder – Jessarelle's belongings. "Ready to go home?" John asked. Jessarelle nodded, taking a deep breath.
"Give us a minute," Ronon asked, looking down at Jessarelle. "There's someone we need to see." John understood. They wanted to stop at Tyre's grave before leaving. "We'll wait for you at the gate." With that John left to go find Jennifer and say his farewells to Coorin and the others.
-o0o-