SGA/Firefly crossover (Disclaimer – I don't own any of this, blah, blah, blah – I just like to play.) Spoilers for SGA: Season 4 up to Midway and for all of Firefly.
In Sleep, Perchance To Dream
Chapter 1
Jennifer Keller never really paid much attention to her dreams until the night she dreamt she was shot in the stomach. Mostly her dreams were vague images and scenes that she barely recalled when she woke up. Oh sure, there'd been a couple that she'd remembered – the ones where she woke up thinking "what the hell."
She sat up in bed with a strangled scream, her arms crossed protectively across her middle. Her tank top and shorts were soaked with sweat and her hair was stringy and damp as it swung forward from her shivering shoulders. Her heart was pounding madly and her breath came in labored gasps that echoed loudly in the room. It was a full minute before her dark blue eyes were able to focus on the end of her bed. When her breath came a little easier she almost frantically pulled up her top to examine her smooth abdomen. A pale, trembling hand felt across the area right above her belly button, stopping on the left side, right below her ribs.
Jennifer let her breath out in a rush as expert fingers probed the area, but found no evidence of even scar tissue. She pulled her shirt back down and pushed the cool sheet and blanket back. It was a moment after she swung her legs over and sat on the edge of the bed before she could muster the strength to stand. As she pushed herself up and moved to the bathroom on shaky limbs, images of the dream came back to her – the previous intensity muted, but still clear.
While she didn't remember much of the beginning, she did remember standing in a large open area, watching from afar an intense argument. A man held a gun and was threatening two others. On the periphery moved a couple of women and an older man in a black top with a chaplain's collar. Suddenly the gun was pointed at her and a violent force pushed her against the wall behind her. Jennifer leaned over the bathroom sink, dragging in deep mouthfuls of air as she recalled the sensation of losing feeling in her legs and the suddenly numb area between her top and bottom. All of a sudden she was on her back, a firebrand burning along her side, with several people standing over her.
A woman with long dark hair was snapping at the man standing near her knees who was shouting at a younger man with bloody hands. Was that her blood? Vaguely, Jennifer recalled the gist of the argument. The man who was shouting at the man with blood on his hands wanted him to save her. The other one wouldn't until the shouter did something else. The woman told the shouter to do what the other asked. The next dream scene she was being lifted and the firebrand in her side became a flow of bright hot lava lapping up into her breastbone and down her legs. That was when Jennifer had wakened with a start.
Deep, even breaths helped Jennifer control the nausea that threatened. She sat on the cool toilet seat and leaned forward to rest her forehead on her knees. The dream faded slowly as she concentrated on not thinking, only breathing. After a while she was able to stand up, push her hair away from her face and splash cold water on her face.
As she got ready for the day, one more thought occurred to her. In the dream, even though she knew she was Dr. Jennifer Keller, Chief Medical Officer stationed on Atlantis, the man who had shouted on her behalf had called her by another name. He had shouted it as he'd rushed up to her prone body. "Kaylee," he'd called her.
OOOooooOOO
"You okay?" Ronon asked her, his amber eyes narrowed in concern.
Jennifer was sitting across from him in the airy mess hall. Rodney and Teyla had just left, and she had yet to see John. Bright sunlight careened through the windows and doors, and a soft spring breeze blew in from the open balcony. She looked up from her contemplation of granola sprinkled yogurt with a side of fruit, and regarded him tiredly.
With an attempted half-smile she brushed his question away. "Just had a bad night, is all. Didn't sleep well." She shrugged and he peered at her a moment more before addressing his own plate of food piled high with scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon.
He shoveled the food down, and she was momentarily distracted by the way the muscles in his arm nearly rippled as he brought the food up to his mouth. She blinked and looked away. "Do you…" she started. His intense eyes came back to her. "Have you ever had a dream, or rather nightmare, in which you were shot?"
A pause then his dark eyebrows lifted in query and he quickly swallowed the half chewed food in his mouth. "Yeah, why?"
She shrugged and felt uncomfortable under the sudden concern in his probing gaze. She stood abruptly and with shaking hands gathered her untouched bowl of yogurt and fruit. She felt his eyes on her as she hurried off to the counter and asked the person on duty to put her food in the large fridge for later.
Jennifer kept her head down as she left the mess at a near run. She almost expected Ronon to come after her, but he didn't and she made it through the infirmary and into her office without anyone stopping her. Once there she immersed herself in work, filling delinquent reports and catching up on other paperwork. She had a couple of granola bars in her desk and munched on those when her stomach made itself known. The day-shift nurses didn't bother her until early afternoon when the doctor on call went to lunch just before Major Lorne came in with one of his teammates in urgent need of stitches.
"How did this happen?" she asked as she snapped rubber gloves on and reached out an arm for the suture cart nearby. The marine in front of her grimaced, whether from the question or the disinfectant she swabbed over the gash in his forehead, she couldn't tell.
Major Lorne, standing near the bed, rubbed a hand across his lips, trying unsuccessfully to hide a grin. "Uh, funny thing, that. What was it, Evans, a tree branch?" He held back a laugh at the glare Evans shot him. "Yeah, the branch rose up and got him smack dab in the face right as the priestess we were escorting walked by."
Jennifer had to smile at the abashed look on Evan's face. She continued to apply the stitches, glad of the distraction. "So, a pretty girl, huh?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively before turning to the Major. "We'll be done here shortly, Major Lorne."
"Thanks, doc." He nodded and left the infirmary after instructing his team member to check in with him before going to his quarters. She finished up and let the young marine go with instructions to come back in a week.
She was straightening up the cart when a hand touched her shoulder gently and a deep voice said, "Hey."
She swung around, the bandages in her hand flying loose and scattering all around. "Ronon! You scared the bejesus out of me." She put a hand to her pounding heart.
"Sorry, didn't mean to." He bent and retrieved a couple of bandages within reach. She knelt beside him and gathered up the rest. They stood up together, facing each other. She stared at his chest for a moment, already embarrassed enough because of the way she'd left the mess hall earlier.
An opportunity to turn away presented itself when he held out the bandages he'd picked up. She grabbed them and whirled to face the cart. Ronon must not have like talking to her back because he walked around her. There was a moment of silence.
"Look, Ronon…" she began at the same time he said, "Hey, doc…"
They both paused. The ridiculousness of it struck her, and she met his eyes with a slight smile.
"I'm sorry, Ronon. I shouldn't have run out on you earlier." She sighed and fiddled with the closed suture case sitting on top of the cart. "I just was…well, I just…"
He reached out and put a hand over hers. She stilled instantly and her eyes rose slowly to his. "Don't worry. I'm just making sure you're okay." He squeezed gently and let go.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." She smiled again and brightened. "It was just a silly dream I had. Really don't even remember it now."
His eyebrow quirked questioningly, and she held her breath. There really was no fooling this guy. But he let it go anyway. "Okay."
"Okay," she responded, enunciating each syllable, and pushed the cart back to its proper place. Now she didn't have anything to occupy her hands. "So, I never did get a chance to thank you for helping me the other day." He'd helped her get the infirmary back together after their little enforced stay a couple days earlier.
Ronon shrugged, dreds resettling over his broad shoulders. "Happy to help." He suddenly grinned at her. "'Sides, I was the one who suggested the oxygen tanks, and set them up, so partly my fault."
"No, no, we did what had to." She recalled the conversation afterwards, and felt her face heat up. They hadn't had a chance to continue the moment, nor talk about it.
He must have recalled it too, as his eyes and face grew serious. He stepped closer to her and her breath came just little faster. She felt the warmth of his body, close enough to easily reach out and touch. All that golden skin. She licked her lips nervously as her stomach suddenly erupted in butterflies. It'd been a while, a long while, since she felt like this.
Ronon's eyes shifted to the left, focusing on someone else right before a soft voice interrupted them.
"Excuse me. Dr. Keller?"
Jennifer whirled around hoping her face wasn't beet red. Her ears still felt warm. Teyla stood there, supporting a weak-looking Dr. Kusanagi.
"I am sorry for interrupting, but Dr. Kusanagi was injured while we were sparring," Teyla explained. "She tripped and her head hit the floor pretty hard." She hoisted the fainting scientist into a more secure grip, trying to move an elbow off her protruding belly.
Instantly, Jennifer was back in professional mode.
OOOooooOOO
That night Jennifer dreamed again, but it was so vague she barely remembered it in the morning. A hazy feeling of urgency and restrained violence coupled with movement was really all she recalled upon waking, and even that faded as she began her day.
Ronon joined her in the mess hall for breakfast shortly after she sat down. Before she knew it, his whole team had drifted in and was sitting around the table, conversation flying. Even Teyla joined them, although she wasn't an active member for the nonce. Every once in a while Ronon met her eyes and smiled, and grinning outright when Rodney and John got into an argument over what movie was better, A New Hope or Empire Strikes Back. It was obviously a well-tread argument on both sides, and it ended when Atlantis's top team was paged to the control tower.
Jennifer finished her breakfast, yogurt and fruit again. She'd had the kitchen throw out the food from yesterday, as she'd been meaning to get to it yesterday and didn't. Immersed in work, both paper and hands-on, up to her elbows, she didn't notice the passage of time. It was dark out when she sat back from her desk to stretch. She looked up to see Ronon coming toward her office.
"Hey," she greeted as she got up and met him at the door. Her eyes roved over his body, searching clinically for blood or contusions. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, no problems. McKay found a hole in space right above us, and freaked out." Ronon was grinning like loon. "Sheppard had to slap him a couple of times to calm him down."
"He slapped him?" she replied, laughing a little. "Wait, a hole in space?"
"Carter says there's nothing to worry about. She called it a 'sub-space anomaly' and told McKay to come see you for a sedative." He shrugged and smirked. "I'm your advance warning." Then, in a brighter voice, "So, dinner?"
"I should probably be here to check out Dr. McKay." She said it almost hesitantly – dinner with the handsome man in front of her was far, far preferable to Rodney freaking out in her infirmary. But duty came first. Her nurses on duty would kill her for abandoning them to his psychotic and sometimes downright vicious mercies. He was no-ones preferred patient.
"Really?" Ronon just looked at her.
"Really! Ronon, stop!" she added as he continued to look questionably at her. "Look, my staff would turn into a lynch mob the second they think I've gone and left them to deal with McKay." She rolled her eyes. "But, it shouldn't take long. Say fifteen minutes, and I'll meet you in the mess?"
"Fifteen minutes." The look he gave her intimated that he would come looking for her at the stroke of fifteen minutes and one second.
Ronon passed Sheppard escorting a protesting McKay into the room.
"…don't know what Carter was thinking. Last thing I need is for Keller to practice her voodoo magic on me."
"Shut-up, Rodney, and get in there."
A red-faced Dr. McKay was propelled backwards into the room. John followed nonchalantly.
As Jennifer cleared her throat, Rodney whirled around. He started backing up as she stalked him with a syringe held in rubber-clad hands.
"Dr. McKay, Colonel Carter tells me you're over-reacting again." She smiled calmly. "You know Carson warned you several times about your hypertension and dangerously high blood pressure."
"Yes, yes, all taken with a grain of salt. Most of that is normal for me." Rodney shot an appealing look at John…
…who simply ignored the scientist while smiling back at Jennifer. "He did get a bit riled up earlier." He hitched one side of his mouth up along with a single shoulder shrug. "All over a little anomaly. Which," and he raised his voice to cover Rodney's protest, "Carter assured him was of little consequence and that the other astrophysicists would keep an eye on it."
"Little?" Rodney exploded.
"In the grand scope of things?" John rolled his eyes. "Yes, Rodney, little."
"I'll have you know that the word 'little' doesn't even begin to…Ow, owowowow!" He twisted and glared at Jennifer as she finally was able to plunge the needle in, not even bothering with a vein. A glute was good enough. He rubbed the affected area and scowled. "That wasn't even ethical, getting behind me like that." He paused to draw breath, and offer a low, parting shot. "Carson would never have lowered himself to that." And head high, he stormed out of the infirmary.
McKay!" John shouted, appalled that even Rodney, master of the obvious and insulting, would stoop that low. He'd turned to watch the livid scientist storm out of the room then turned to Jennifer, apology written all over his face. "I'm sorry, doc. Sometimes he just…you know."
She nodded and quirked her lips. "I know. Believe me, by now I try not to take it to heart."
"Yeah, but that was low, even for Rodney."
"Don't worry. You can, however, let him know that next time he's here…" She paused dramatically. "I'll let Nurse Higgins at him."
John was startled into a short bark of laughter. Nurse Higgins was the complete antithesis of Dr. Keller. Twice as large with a personality to match her poker face, compassion was a four letter word to her. Higgins was the threat Jennifer used to keep the Marines (and some scientists) in line.
"Well, I'd better make sure Rodney gets to his quarters before collapsing," John said as he moved to the entrance. "See ya, doc."