Title: Moments Flare Out
Pairing: Ronon/Jennifer, Jack/Ianto
Spoilers: Up to Season 5's The Seed of Stargate: Atlantis and both seasons of Torchwood.
Disclaimer: SG:A and Torchwood do not belong to me. The title and excerpts are taken from the song 'Love, Love, Love' by the Mountain Goats. I also mention an indoor market in Philadelphia, it's actually called the Reading Terminal Market and is awesome. If you're ever in Philly, you must go!

Summary: The Captain on the other hand hadn't really endeared himself to Ronon.

A/N: Well, here is the one-shot I promised, also known as the Story That Ate Manhatten and Seren's brain. You don't necessarily need to have read Naming the Stars, but it might help. Some very, very nice people asked for the Torchwood folks to meet some more of the Stargate: Atlantis folks. So here they are. All you really need to know about Torchwood and Captain Jack Harkness in particular, is that they battle aliens and other odd beings in the UK, it's an off-shoot of Doctor Who. Captain Jack is a human from the 51st century with a very 'flexible' attitude to sex. What that entails, I'll leave to your imaginations. His other quirk is that he cannot be killed, so he's actually a lot older than he looks.

I hope this is as entertaining to read as it was to write. Please let me know what you think!

***
Some things you do for money
And some you'll do for fun
But the things you do for love
Are gonna come back to you one by one

Ronon shifted in his seat and fought the urge to pull at his neck collar. Again.

He supposed he should just be grateful he'd gotten away with wearing a buttoned up shirt and not a tie. Why Earth men had decided that putting a miniature noose around their necks was a good idea, he'd never understand. Instead, he just growled slightly under his breath and wished there was something stronger to drink than the obviously cheap stuff currently being served and continued to watch.

Watch Jennifer to be exact.

Watch Jennifer dancing with another guy to really exact.

"He's not going to run off with her you know," a smooth voice said to his right. Ronon shot the man seated at their table a look. "Really, he's not. She's gorgeous and all, but not his type."

Ronon gritted his teeth and kept his eyes on the dance floor.

Once again to inspire cooperation with the various top-secret organizations all over the world someone had the brilliant idea that a week filled with seminars and what John had derisively called 'meet and greets' was the perfect way to get people to connect and establish alliances.

Ronon was all for allies, as long as you kept a close eye on them. But how sitting through a bunch of lectures given by a bunch of guys who were just a more annoying copy of McKay actually created goodwill, Ronon hadn't quite figured out yet.

He hadn't been even been on the list to go to this 'convention.' But then Teyla decided she didn't want to leave Torren behind and then he'd found out Jennifer was going and that more or less settled that. He was already having a very hard time letting her out of his sight on Atlantis after the hive ship incident. No way was he letting her go all the way to Earth without proper protection. Protection being him, of course. Woolsey had balked a little at the idea, but then decided it couldn't hurt too much as long as Ronon left his gun behind. Ronon was okay with that, he had other smaller guns that could be hidden easily.

So here he was along with Shepperd, McKay, Woolsey and Jennifer on Earth in a place called Philadelphia.

The various organizations had decided that it would be best if no one group sponsored the event and picked a supposedly 'neutral' place to hold the convention.

McKay went on and on about how there was in fact no neutrality anywhere and Philadelphia was a den of crime and why on earth couldn't they have gone somewhere like Toronto? Shepperd countered that Philadelphia was filled with US history and mentioned something called a cheesesteak that sounded pretty damn good to Ronon. Then John asked what was the point of complaining about where the damn thing took place as they were just going to end up stuck in boring meetings and seminars all day and who were the poor saps that had to give the talks this time anyway?

At this point, both Rodney and Jennifer raised their hands and glared at John. John sheepishly apologized and promised to go to both of their lectures.

Philadelphia in Earth's autumn was actually pretty impressive; the trees were an amazing array of color. The city itself seemed too gray at times to Ronon and he'd never been comfortable around crowds. The convention was being held in a hotel downtown and the rooms where the organizations met had high ceilings and painted in odd neutral colors. During the introductory speech, Ronon had already figured out at least five possible escape routes by the time the guy at the podium had said "Welcome." Jennifer must have felt his discomfort, because at one point she'd surreptitiously reached over and hooked her pinky finger with his. Some of the tension in his spine eased.

The head guy finished and the delegates were instructed to mingle before the first lectures began. Ronon had never more felt like livestock as everyone moved from the big room with chairs to the slightly smaller room without chairs.

Ronon then spent the next two days in a state of boredom that had him literally aching with the need to do something. Anything.

As promised, he, John and Jennifer attended Rodney's lecture. Ronon zoned out within the first run-on sentence and John quickly followed. Jennifer was the picture of attentiveness: back straight and eyes forward, she appeared to be taking copious notes. It wasn't until Ronon shifted slightly and glanced down at her notebook did he realize that she was, in fact, drawing what appeared to be flowers entwined with an anatomically correct cross-section of a human heart, complete with labelled ventricles. He bumped her shoulder and nodded at her notebook. She blushed and bumped him back. John just looked over and rolled his eyes.

That was on the first day.

The second day saw John and Ronon in endless meetings designed to educate them on tactics and strategy. Ronon decided that the majority of these people wouldn't actually know what strategy was if it bit them on the ass.

After three hours of listening to people talk around the issues and not actually going into any specifics all for the sake of security, Ronon grabbed Shepperd, who looked as bored and frustrated as Ronon was, and told him that either he got to leave or he was going to shoot something.

John agreed immediately.

They found Jennifer on her way to a lecture given by a Dr. Jones from the Unified Intelligence Taskforce and took her with them. She'd already given her lecture that morning: Tactile Interactions with Illuminated Foreign Objects and the Underlying Physiological Manifestations of Said Objects. Or as she had summed it up for them earlier, Why I Should Not Touch the Shiny Thing When I Don't Know What It Is.

John tried to entice Rodney, but the scientist was actually enjoying himself and just couldn't fathom their need to escape. He did make them promise to bring him back something edible.

They tore their nametags off and headed down to the street level and out the door. Ronon was stiff at first walking through the crowds but loosened up when Jennifer took his hand in his and pointed things out to him that were distinctly American.

John led the way to an indoor market that he'd heard about. Once inside they all just breathed in the warm smell of food. First stop was for something called a pretzel that was just dough with a weird twist in it and cinnamon sprinkled on top of it. Ronon and John ate theirs quickly while Jennifer savoured hers. She'd pull a piece off at a time and place it in her mouth. Ronon ran into several people as he watched her eat. He'd never wanted to be a piece of food more when he'd heard the delighted sounds she made as she licked the sugar off her fingers.

Finally, he stopped and pulled her to the side of the flow of people and told her she had some sugar on her upper lip. She reached up to brush it off and then asked him if she got it? He shook his head, leaned in and kissed her deeply and thoroughly, tasting her and cinnamon and butter. He pulled back, licked his lips and met her surprised and happy eyes. Her lips were parted in disbelief and then she smiled at him with so much delight and warmth, he felt his heart stutter.

After they explored the market and bought stuff to take back to Teyla and everyone on Atlantis, they hit the streets again and just walked. They eventually ended up in front of a stand selling Philly cheesesteaks. John ordered one for each of them. Ronon ate all of his, what Jen couldn't finish and went back for seconds and then thirds. He contemplated a fourth when he noticed that Jen was looking oddly at his stomach. When he asked what was wrong, she launched into a description of the digestive process that had John looking green and Ronon decided to skip the fourth cheesesteak.

They reluctantly returned to the hotel and the rest of the convention.

That was yesterday.

Tonight was the finale to the three day-long convention. After another pointless day of seminars, the concluding dinner took place, followed by speeches, followed by dancing. Dinner had been predictably terrible and the only good thing about the speeches was that he'd hopefully never have to hear these people again.

And then the dancing started. John was off at the bar trying to get something stronger than cheap wine and Rodney was on the dance floor with a redhead from Britain and Jennifer was dancing with her friend Ianto Jones from Torchwood.

That left Ronon at the table with the Captain.

They'd run into Captain Harkness and Ianto on their first evening and had eaten dinner with them each night since. Ronon didn't really mind Ianto all that much. He seemed like a nice enough guy and he made Jennifer laugh in a completely brotherly way. The Captain on the other hand hadn't really endeared himself to Ronon. The first thing the Captain had done when meeting up with Jennifer was to take her hand and kiss the back of it. He'd caught Ronon's glare and had just grinned at the Satedan. There was something about the Captain that didn't add up for Ronon; something was off in his scent. Not quite alien, not quite human, just... off.

And the guy talked too much.

"Seriously," the captain was currently saying. "You don't need to worry about Ianto."

"I know," Ronon said, eyes glued to the dance floor.

"Well, good," the man said. "So why are you staring at them like you're about to kill one of them and steal the other one away?"

"Why aren't you?" Ronon shot back.

"Fair point," Jack said acknowledging the statement. Then he said with a disgusting amount of smugness, "I'm not staring because I know who he's going to be with later."

"So do I," Ronon said just as smugly.

The fact was Ronon was not worried about anyone stealing Jennifer. He just couldn't take his eyes off of her. When she'd appeared out of her hotel room wearing a sleeveless, gauzy brown dress that wrapped around her curves and dipped low in the front and the back and then swirled around her legs, Ronon was struck by the realization that maybe McKay was on to something when he called Ronon a caveman. All Ronon had wanted to do when he caught sight of his pendant resting on Jennifer's bare skin was forget the promise he'd made to himself about taking it slow and just throw her over his shoulder and not leave her room for hours.

"So, then this is just your usual sparkling personality?" Jack asked as he watched Ronon watch the dancers.

"Yep," Ronon said. Jennifer looked over and smiled at him over Ianto's shoulder. He smirked back briefly and then let his face resume its usual blank mask.

"I saw that," Harkness said with a grin. "So is that all it takes to get a reaction from you, Specialist Dex? A nice smile from a pretty doctor?"

"Doesn't hurt," was the answer.

That seemed to satisfy the Captain. But after a few blissfully silent moments, the man started talking again.

"Think they're talking about us?"

"Probably."

"You two been together long?"

"Long enough."

"Ah, the honeymoon period still hunh?" Jack said suggestively as he waggled his eyebrows. "Should've guessed. You've got the whole 'she's my woman, back off' look down."

Ronon just grunted.

"Don't blame you. Smart, pretty, great legs," Jack said casually. "I'd be staking my claim too."

Ronon ground his teeth a little.

Jennifer laughed at something Ianto said and still managed to follow a complicated dance step while Ianto spun her out and then back. Ronon felt the familiar stutter in his heart at the sight of her smile.

"Funny thing about love," Jack started.

Ronon made a noise in the back of his throat and glanced at the man with a raised eyebrow. Was the man seriously going to talk about love? Now? To him? He shook his head, stared at Jennifer and prayed John turned up soon with a hard drink.

"The thing about love," Harkness said again, emphasizing the word 'love.' "It makes you both incredibly selfish and selfless at the same time."

Ronon started to roll his eyes but stopped at the serious look on the Captain's face.

"You want the best for them while keeping them entirely to yourself," Jack said absently as he looked at the couple on the dance floor. "Which makes it very hard to share them with anyone."

The Captain met his eyes. Ronon was struck with the impression he was looking at someone far, far older than he appeared.

"A Captain of what?" Ronon asked finally.

"An island in the Polynesia?" Jack shot back with a smirk, referring to Ronon's own cover story.

The two men studied the other.

Then with slight nods of their heads, the men accepted the unanswered questions and looked back out at the dance floor. Jennifer was looking at him with a concerned expression.

Ronon just stared back at her and then, because he could, let his eyes blatantly travel the length of her body and back up to her eyes. He took in her flushed face and smirked. She glared, pursed her lips and deliberately looked away. He chuckled to himself.

"Wow," Jack said impressed. "And I thought I was good at the silent we-need-to-have-sex-now look."

"The what look?" Ronon asked incredulously.

"Oh, you know. The look you give your partner when you're dying to rip their clothes off. Bet she's lovely. Hey, don't growl," Jack said to Ronon who glared at him. "It's a compliment of your taste. She's a beautiful woman."

"It's disrespectful to her," Ronon growled.

"Not really," the man said casually. "I already complimented her on her fabulous taste, i.e. you, so really, I'm just being polite and fair."

Ronon didn't have any response to that other than ones that would cause the Captain a fair amount of pain, so he just shook his head.

"Besides, you know how doctors make some of the best lovers," Jack went on.

"What?" Ronon said loudly.

"Yeah, you know…" Jack leered at him. Then the Captain took in Ronon's defensive posture and the clenched jaw and then glanced at Jennifer. Something clicked in his mind. "Oh. I see. I'm sorry. I'd just assumed you two crazy kids had already…"

"You know what happens when you assume stuff?" Ronon gritted out.

"Uh, I make an ass out of you and me?" Jack said trying for a joke.

"No. I break things," Ronon said. "Like jaws."

"Got it," Harkness said fighting a grin. "I apologize."

The two men sat in silence and watched their partners dance. Ronon decided that he must have some kind of masochistic streak, because he had to voice the question at the front of his mind.

"What did you mean?" he asked gruffly. Jack looked over at him, eyebrows raised in query. "About doctors."

"About… Oh!" Jack said. He gave Ronon a look that was actually closer in nature to a leer. "Well, she's a doctor, do you know what that means?"

"That she heals people. That she hates to see anything in pain," Ronon said. "That she has a sense of compassion that borders on reckless and has absolutely no sense of self-preservation."

"Umm, well, besides all that," Jack sounded highly amused. "Do you know what being a doctor truly entails? What they have learned over the course of their careers, not to mention all the years of schooling? "

"I have a feeling that I don't," Ronon said dryly.

"What it means, my friend, is this," Jack said as he leaned over to say very matter-of-factly, "That sweet little woman out there has a working knowledge of anatomy which far surpasses that of any other mortal."

Ronon stared at the Captain, who just raised his glass at him, and then looked out at Jennifer. He recalled the way her soft hands felt when they held his, to how sure they were when she stitched him up. She concentrated so completely during surgery, not letting anything distract her, her fingers dextrous and determined. The idea of Jennifer giving him, giving his body, that same kind of single-minded exploration was almost more than he could stand and his body reacted instantly.

Beside him, the Captain chuckled knowingly.

"Go," Jack told him with a gesture of his hand. "Go forth and conquer."

That broke Ronon out of his lust-filled haze.

"No," he said quietly. "I don't want to conquer her."

Jack took in the look on the larger man's face.

"No, I don't suppose you do," Jack said as he gazed at the couple fondly. The Captain cleared his throat. "However, there's nothing stopping you from claiming her."

"Done that already," Ronon smirked as he thought about the pendant. Just because Jennifer hadn't quite realized the extent of his intentions towards her, didn't mean they weren't there, as bright as the sun, on a chain around her slender neck.

"Okay, let me rephrase," Jack said slowly. "Get your ass out there and dance with that beautiful girl so I can have my guy all to myself."

It was Ronon's turn to look amused and he looked sideways at Jack.

"Why don't you go and claim him, if you're that impatient?" Ronon asked.

Jack snorted and downed the rest of his wine with a grimace.

"Because, while this bunch is quite happy to acknowledge the existence of little green men, they are not always happy to see a more, shall we say: alternative relationship," he said, an edge of bitterness lacing through his words.

"That's stupid," Ronon said with a frown.

"Is it?" Jack asked him, genuinely interested in the answer.

"'Course," Ronon answered. "Life's too short."

"Well, true, for some of us at least," Jack said cryptically, but with a smile. "So, considering how short life is, tell me again why you aren't dancing with your girl?"

"Never told you a first time," Ronon replied.

"Dear God, you're a brick wall," Jack said a laugh. "So, tell me now."

"I like watching her," Ronon said simply with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I hear that," Jack said eyeing Ianto, who was somehow managing to avoid any direct eye contact with the Captain.

The two men sat in companionable silence as the song came to an end and both smiled when Ianto dipped Jennifer in a spectacular fashion; Jen trying desperately not to burst out laughing. Ronon sat up straight as Ianto and Jennifer headed back to the table.

"Behaving yourselves?" Jennifer asked as she came to stand next to him. He breathed in the scent of her.

"Always," Ronon said with a straight face just as Jack also replied, "Of course."

Jen and Ianto shared a commiserating look.

"Why do I seriously doubt that?" Jennifer asked placing her hands on her hips. Ronon just shrugged.

"I'm wounded Dr. Keller," Jack said placing his hand on his heart. "Mortally."

"Why do I seriously doubt that?" Ianto murmured as he sat down next to the Captain.

"Because you know me too well," Jack said to him. He pointed a finger at Jennifer. "However, she cannot claim the same pleasure."

"Thank the Ancients," Ronon said under his breath. Jennifer laughed and Jack just shook his head.

"Your man here is a hard one to crack," Jack told Jen.

"Oh, he's not so bad," Jennifer said quietly staring at Ronon; the stutter in his chest was becoming a permanent fixture. She held out a hand, "Dance with me?"

Ronon took her hand and stood so close to her he could see the thrum of her pulse in her neck and feel the heat of her body. He bent slightly.

"You don't have to ask," he said in a low voice against her ear. He could see the affect his words had on her as her breathing quickened and her eyes fluttered. But, she recovered quickly and tightened her grip on his hand and began to walk backwards to the dance floor.

"Who said I was asking?" Jennifer said with a wicked smile. Ronon felt his own breathing quicken and he followed her onto the dance floor with the knowledge that he was probably going to follow this woman anywhere.

Jack and Ianto watched as the slim woman was enfolded into the large man's body and they began to sway back and forth. Jack sighed.

"Problem, sir?" Ianto asked.

"Hmm? No, not really," Jack said.

"Well, then, why don't we get out of here and take advantage of the room service and the shower massage this hotel so helpfully provides?" Ianto said in a far too nonchalant tone.

Slightly surprised, Jack turned his head to look at his lover who met his gaze steadily.

"And sir," Ianto said as he slowly stood up and quirked an eyebrow. "I wasn't asking either."

The last Ronon saw of Captain Harkness that evening was the back of his coat as he followed Ianto out of the room. The Satedan snorted softly and then buried his face in Jennifer's hair and tightened his grip on her hand and waist.

The Captain was okay, he supposed. But he still talked too much.

Some moments last forever
And some flare out with love love love