Date: June 2006
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Ronon/OFC
Spoilers: None
Summary: A new woman enters Ronon's life that has all other men running for cover. Written for The Klutz Challenge posted by Scifigirl1
Archived: shayz(dot)livejournal(dot)com, community(dot)livejournal(dot)com/rdfever, fanfiction(dot)ritchiesweb(dot)net/
Disclaimers: Stargate Atlantis characters do not belong to me; I have no money. Please don't sue.
WARNING: this fic is rated NC-17...if you are not an adult, turn back now. Thank you.

Starring:
Ronon Dex, John Sheppard, Elizabeth Weir, Rodney McKay, Carson Beckett
Introducing:
Dr. Alessa D'Angelos (OFC)

O-o-O-o-O

They can't make it back to the gate. Not now. Not with the wounds so deep, the blood oozing, leaving a trail. They'll have to make camp, here, in this cave.

It's dark, too dark. He can barely see toward the mouth of the tunnel. The forest trees block out any light from the sky. But it's warm and well hidden within the forest. Luckily there's a small pool of water fed from a hole in the ceiling; he can hear the trickling even if he can't see the sweet reward.

The ambush came fast and hard. They were at the ruins with the rest of his team. Sheppard, McKay and Teyla…Ronon hopes they made it back to the gate safely. He should have seen it coming, but he didn't.

He was distracted, watching her work, watching her hair graze the round cheeks of her face, tickle her slightly pointed chin. Seeing her look up and catch him staring, enjoying the blush that follows whenever he smiles at her. He should have been doing his job. He's her bodyguard, not her mate. Not her match in anyway possible.

"Ronon?" The softest voice in the universe sends a thrill down his spine and makes his heartbeat lurch. He never thought he could love such a voice; so delicate and womanly, not a warrior by any sense. It's so quiet; it doesn't even bounce off the cave walls.

"I'm still here," he tells her.

"Oh, thank God," she sighs, holding back tears. She's afraid and she has every reason to be. They came for her. They found her…somehow they'd managed to tag her the last time. Looks like they've got some new toys.

Beckett never suspected; no one did. "I'm so sorry. So sorry," she says, her voice breaking slightly. But she doesn't give in. She doesn't cry. Refusing to be seen as weak. She's stronger than anyone has given her credit for…even herself.

Something else he loves about her.

Loves? How is it possible to love someone who is so unlike yourself? To want to trade your life for them in an instant, without hesitation simply because you want them to go on…even if it means without you by their side?

"It's all my fault."

Ronon presses his hand to the wound and groans as the shudder of pain echoes through his body. "No! Never say that."

"But—"

"No," he says again. "They have their ways. You could not have known…"

"…should've…" her voice is beyond soft, he almost couldn't hear her. "We're not going…to get away…are we…?"

Ronon's eyes settle on the pile of dirty scraps of cloth on the ground at his side. The blood will draw animals, he's sure of it. And if the animals find them, then so shall the Wraith. It's only a matter of time.

"Yes. We will," he lies. "I won't let them have you, Alessa. You belong with me." That part he means with his whole heart.

How is it possible to feel so strongly for someone…you've known less than a month?

6 WEEKS AGO
Ronon and Sheppard were nearly plowed over by the diminutive, but curvaceous female doctor with the short dark hair reminiscent of Sateda's moonless pitch night sky. He had yet to see her face after all these weeks of near misses simply because she's at least a foot shorter and usually keeping her eyes downcast. But he would never forget the one time that hair swept across his arm in passing. He could not recall ever feeling something so soft against his skin. He wondered if the rest of her was just as soft.

As usual, the woman was rushing away from some raucous noise in her wake. This time it came from the mess hall. "Colonel, Specialist Dex," she sputtered in a whisper-soft voice, not looking at either of them as she passed.

Ronon managed to get out of her way, but she bumped into Sheppard. He grunted in discomfort and his face screwed up tight, turning slightly red. "Man…I gotta start wearing a cup around that woman," he huffed, folding at the waist and resting his fisted hands on his knees as he took deep breaths.

Ronon's eyes followed the doctor. Her hands were tightly wadded by her hips, arms straight and legs stiff, but her well-rounded bottom swished as she hurried down the corridor and out of sight. Ronon always enjoyed that in a woman. Too many of the Earth females were hard muscle or taught skin over bone. So few of them looked like what he knew females of Sateda to be: tender flesh and blood, aching for a man's hands to pleasure them all over. Bodies healthy, full and ready to create new life.

"Five-foot-four inches and 130 pounds of natural disaster," Sheppard groaned. "That's for sure."

"Seems harmless enough to me," Ronon said. Sheppard glared at him.

The noise and commotion from the mess hall pulled both of them forward, Ronon making it to the door before Sheppard. Chaos reigned in the large room filled with people tripping over each other as they slipped and slid across the floor, trays and dishes clattered out of hands, chairs overturned and a few tables were pushed out of their standard alignment. "Guess you were right," he told Sheppard. The Colonel wrinkled his brows, still taking deep breaths. Ronon pointed to the floor. "Mash potato day."

Stackhouse and Beckett were doing their best to drag McKay out of the room as he shouted over the rest of the din. "She tried to kill me!"

"It was an accident Rodney. Now calm down…did it hit you in the face?"

"Of course it did, I can't see anything! And my tongue. My tongue is swelling up…I can feel it."

Ronon swiped a hand across McKay's face, digging mash potatoes out of the man's eyes. "That better?"

He blinked, blue eyes framed by white mash. "Actually…yes, thank you," he grumbled. "But what about my tongue?"

"Seems to be working, unfortunately," Ronon said.

Sheppard found his voice, though it was unusually high-pitched for a moment. "What happened?"

"She tried to kill me!" McKay yelled again.

"She did not, Rodney," Beckett said. "Now shut up. You're not dying from what I can see. You may hyperventilate and pass out though, so calm down already." Beckett shook his head sadly at Sheppard. "Dr. D'Angelos, did you see her?"

He pointed toward the corridor. "She went that way."

"Of course she did. Escaping the scene of the crime!"

"She didn't squirt you on purpose. Now stop before I decide to give you a really big shot of something just for the fun of it."

McKay, face caked with white potatoes, let his mouth drop open and his eyes widen in shock. "You wouldn't."

"I'd hold you down," Ronon offered.

Stackhouse struggled to stifle a chuckle. "She was just having some iced tea and squirted some lemon in it as Dr. McKay happened to be walking by."

"Just happened…I was standing right next to her having a conversation with Dr. Nileson. Right next to her!"

"Seems the lemon hit him and he stumbled back in a panic…" Beckett added.

"Of course I panicked. Even the tiniest amount of citrus can kill me! Don't people get that? I'm a dead man!"

"Let me guess," Sheppard waved a hand toward the chaos. "You created this mess in your urgent get-away."

Stackhouse's grin increased. "He bumped into a group and they all splattered and collapsed into a heap…it went downhill fast from there."