Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once: I don't own any of the characters and I'm not making money off of doing this. This is simply for fun.

Note: The song is "The Call" by Regina Spektor. Play it while you read the story.

It started out as a feeling

Which then grew into a hope

Which then turned into a quiet thought

Which then turned into a quiet word

They watch each other from across the mess hall. Him, sitting casually with his teammates, one leg resting on another chair's base. Her, seated with her head nurse, Marie. They lock eyes over the rim of their glasses. Trying to read each others' minds, focusing on one another, to the point of ignoring their companions.

And then the alarm goes off, signaling an unscheduled incoming wormhole. "We need a med team in the gate room." They hear Chuck's voice over the PA. Jennifer and Marie scramble from their table. The doctor is already on her radio, calling out names she wants to assist her.

Sheppard and his team are already running past the CMO and the nurse before Chuck adds "Colonel Sheppard, please report to Mr. Woolsey's office right away."

"What's going on?" John asks as he looks up at Woolsey, from the gate room. A marine, with a broken leg, is leaning against another, while another is laying on the floor, severely injured. The fourth, sitting right by him, holding her own head.

"Are you hurt?" Jennifer asks.

"I don't think so." The marine replies.

"She is." Says Major Cooper, the marine supporting his teammate. "She was clubbed at the back of her head."

"I'm fine." The proud marine says. "I –" She starts to say when she gets up, losing her balance, and falling back. Fortunately for her, Ronon is fast on his feet and manages to catch her just in time.

"Ronon, I need you to take her to the infirmary right away." She tells him. And then pushing the button on her comm, she says "Dr. Turk, Dr. Silas, I need you to prep both ORs for me." Then turning to her med team she starts to barks orders for them.

Jennifer works on her patients one by one while Major Cooper tells Mr. Woolsey, Colonel Sheppard and his team what had happened to him and his team on their mission.

After the surgeries, Jennifer finds herself seated at the conference table with Rodney and Teyla flanking her on both sides. She's giving the Alpha team and Mr. Woolsey her report on the three injured marines.

"Now that we have Dr. Keller's report, I believe this debriefing is over." Richard says as he arranges the papers he's holding.

"What? We're not gonna do anything about this?" John asks.

"What do you suggest we do, Colonel?" Richard Woolsey asks John. "Go back to the planets with guns blazing? I think not."

"There's a hive ship, waiting to be blown up." John exclaims. "It's not like we've never done it before."

"You heard, Major Cooper." Woolsey says. "Half that planet is crawling with wraith worshippers."

"Only half, Mr. Woolsey. Half." Teyla adds.

Richard takes a deep breath and then says "Unless you can come up with a plan on how we can get to this wraith ship, we are staying away from that planet."

"So that means it's a go?" Ronon asks.

"It means that you and your team have better come up with not just one or two plans, but a third and fourth for insurance." Woolsey says as he gets up from his chair, turning to Rodney he says "Dr. McKay, I believe you have some work to do."

"Why me?" Rodney asks him, but Woolsey ignores him and walks out of the briefing room. "Why me?" He asks his teammates, John in particular, as he moves around the conference table.

And then that word grew louder and louder

Til it was a battle cry

Two days later, Jennifer argues with Colonel Sheppard as he and his teammates are getting ready to walk through the Stargate. "You can't possibly go to this suicide mission without medical assistance."

"We do have medical assistance. What are you talking about?" John asks as he slips a power bar in one of his pockets. "We've got Carson. Are you saying he isn't enough?"

"I'm saying he's human. What if there are two medical emergencies, what then? Huh?" She asks.

"Dr. Keller, we need you to be here when we get back. We can't risk having both of the best doctors in Atlantis in this mission." Teyla explains.

"If it's so dangerous, why do you have Major Lorne with you?" Jennifer retorts. "He's your second in command, shouldn't he be left here? What if something happens to Atlantis? What if something happens to you and your team?" She asks, her glance shifting to the side to look at the tall Satedan to her right.

"Because we need Major Lorne on this mission. There are other capable officers here to help if there's an attack. Not to mention, the Daedalus. It's been orbiting this planet for days now." Sheppard tells her. "If anything should happen, everyone on Atlantis will be evacuated."

"I dunno, Sheppard," Rodney begins. "I think she's right, we should probably take her with us. Who knows, there might be more than one of us that could get in –"

"Rodney…" John says in warning. Ronon growls at Mckay, taking a step forward. John bends down to Jennifer and whispers in her ear. "Come on, doc, don't play favorites. It'll hurt all the other guys' feelings." He tells her jokingly.

Jennifer's eyes widen at this. "I – I –"

"Stay here. If you come, you'll just be in the way." Ronon says to her in a low gruff voice when he walks past her, waiting for Teyla and Rodney to walk through the Stargate.

Jennifer's jaw drops. "The nerve!"

"He does not mean it the way you think. He is not very – articulate." Teyla says as she squeezes Jennifer's arm in comfort. She leaves Jennifer standing in the middle of the gate room as she walks beyond the event horizon, following John and Evan and his team.

Rodney soon follows, absently walking, his head bent down as he reads something from his tablet. Ronon brings up the rear, turns around and looks at Jennifer. The expression on his face betraying the words he had just spoken to her.

I'll come back

When you call me

No need to say goodbye

It's been a week already and they haven't been back yet. Atlantis had sent a pair of marines on a reconnaissance mission, and they came back with the news that both teams have settled in the village. Woolsey had sent an order for them to retreat. However, both John and Evan refused.

Another week later, John and Evan's team had finally given up and came back to Atlantis. Jennifer was called into the infirmary to give them their routine check-ups.

"One, two, three, four," Walking down the hall, Jennifer counts under her breath, as she flips through the clipboards, a nurse had given her, holding each team members' forms. "five, six, seven, eight." She counts them again. Eight. There should be nine. She reads the names and the one she's been waiting for for two weeks now is missing. She looks up and calls out to the nurse. "Alice, where is Ronon Dex's file?"

"It's just the eight of them, Dr. Keller." She informs the CMO.

"What do you mean 'just the eight of them'?" Jennifer asks with a frown. "Where is he?" She asks her as she walks through the infirmary doors.

"He wasn't with Colonel Sheppard's team when they came back." Alice tells her.

Jennifer shifts her eyes on the infirmary's occupants. Rodney's head is bent down between his knees. Carson sitting by him, a sad look on his face. The other marines look at her apologetically. Evan and John, who are standing to the side, start to walk towards her. But Teyla holds a hand up to them and hooks her arm through Jennifer's, taking her to the privacy of her office.

"I'm sorry Jennifer." Teyla tells her. "As you know, we were captured. But in order for us to escape, Ronon had sacrificed himself."

Jennifer tries to listen to Teyla. Wondering why there's a tight knot in her chest. She normally feels sad when any of her patients get injured or dies in combat. But this strange feeling of loss is different. It feels like her heart is breaking in a thousand pieces. Like some cold and unrelenting hand is squeezing her heart.

'When we got out of the holding cell, the alarm went off, the Wraith warriors were on us, and there was only one way out. If Ronon hadn't sacrificed himself none of us would be here. He held the wraith back. He kept them from following us to the gate."

Just because everything's changing

Doesn't mean it's never

Been this way before

Could it be that I love him? That I've always felt this way about him. She asks herself. Jennifer turns around and stalks out of her office to stand in front of the Colonel and the major. "But he's still alive, isn't he?" Jennifer asks with a hint of desperation in her voice. John and Evan look at her with unreadable expressions. "Is'nt he!" she demands.

"We don't know that, lass." Carson says from behind her. Jennifer whirls around to face him, seeing Teyla come out of her office from the cornier of her eyes. "He threw himself at the guards, he got hit several times. It was hard to tell –"

"Why are you crying?" Jennifer asks Teyla in a soft voice. "He's still alive and we have to get him back." She says with finality.

"Doc, I don't think you –" Sheppard begins.

Jennifer cuts him off. "Don't say it. Don't say I don't understand. It's not about understanding. It's about believing." She says to him without turning around. "You, of all people, should know that we can't leave a man behind. Besides, if it weren't for you, he would be here. Not in some hive ship." She tells him in an unusually calm voice.

She hands Marie the clipboards and says. "Please give them their routine check-ups. I feel a headache coming on."

TBC.