Servant of Weeping
Disclaimer - Everything SGA doesn't belong to me. I just like to take them out and play with them.
Pairing - Ronon/Jenn
Episode - probably after Inquisition (51 2)
Rating - T
Summary - in response to the June 2011 Love Shack writing challenge using a title generator. Inspired by all the wildfires here in New Mexico during June and July of 2011.
A/N - pronunciations - Cian (Key-on), Daegus (Day-gus), Circenn (Sir-sin)
The call for help came from their off world contacts. Fire was raging on Scarabrae and there were five settlements in its path.
Atlantis mobilized.
The combat engineers were among the first through. Teyla and Ronon also went along to liaise with the locals. Sheppard and Lorne came through the 'gate in Jumpers modified to catch water from nearby lakes and such to drop on the fire. Rodney came through in yet another Jumper with Jennifer and her staff: Marie Ko, Amanda Cole, and Sara Biro. This one was loaded with various medical supplies.
"It's a good spot for a field hospital. We're somewhat near the 'gate. Right by some water. There's enough of a clearing for the Marines to make a fire break." Rodney had his usual cross between arrogance and hoping to please tone of voice.
"I'm sure it'll do fine, Rodney," Jenn interrupted. "I'm going to want two tents. One for triage and treatment; the other for a ward. We're going to need to stabilize the worst injured here before we can send them on to Atlantis or the Beta Site." The infirmary staff got busy setting everything up.
Ronon was getting ready to leave Teyla to escort the evacuees of one village back to the gate. Arno, the bailiff, had refused to leave citing three missing hunters.
"What are their names?"
"Cian, Daegus, and Silvan. They were supposed to come back today, so they might be close by."
With a single glance, Ronon reminded Teyla to take care of herself and that she was needed at Atlantis. Similarly, Teyla sent him the same glance. So, Ronon took off doing one of the things he did best: tracking.
Ronon contemplated that simple goodbye with Teyla. This was a different danger than they were used to. There hadn't been any time to say goodbye to Jenn before he was rushing to give aid.
Finally, he found sign of people moving to the northwest. Unfortunately, the wind was starting to shift. He touched his radio. "Sheppard."
"Yeah Ronon."
"Found the tracks of some missing villagers. I'm following them."
"Keep in touch." And Sheppard's disembodied voice was silent. Ronon continued along the ridge following the tracks.
It wasn't even twenty minutes later that a pair of Marines escorted the first villagers to Base Camp to be checked over.
Jennifer breathed a sigh of relief that this group was relatively unscathed. Their village was in the path of the fire, but everyone evacuated. This group could continue on to the Beta Site.
It was probably the only positive about living in Pegasus that Jenn could conceive of. The peoples out there didn't argue the need for an evacuation. They were even practiced at it. And that cut down on fatalities. Of course, that was spin. They wouldn't have to worry about constantly leaving if it wasn't for the wraith.
Jennifer heard noise up the trail and took a cleansing breath to focus herself. More patients.
Ronon swore under his breath. The tracks ended. Or rather they led up to a wide, dried river bed. Rocks and gravel. Added to that, there was nothing on the far side to suggest there was any sort of game there. At least not large enough for an entire village.
He knelt down and meticulously quartered the area looking for clues. Three people didn't simply vanish. And no one was better at tracking - or covering his tracks for that matter - than Ronon.
Patience was not his forte. Not many people knew that he was even acquainted with it, but he was. It was a necessary part of hunting that his grandfather drilled into him. He, in turn, drilled it into his team on Sateda. He employed it often while hunting the wraith. No. He and patience weren't quite friends, but they were at least allies.
There. A rock was turned over and a partial boot print in the softer sand underneath. At last he had a direction. Straight into the fire line. Ronon clicked his radio. "Sheppard."
No answer came.
Again he tapped the radio. "Sheppard? Lorne?"
When there was still no answer, he set his shoulders and followed the trail.
The third group of villagers presented with more serious problems. Most of these people had smoke inhalation of varying degrees. Most of the adults would be ok, but there were four small children whose lungs were seared by the heat, smoke and other pollutants.
Jenn pasted on a bright smile as she carefully checked over the youngsters. One boy in particular had a quick mischievous smile and a cough that worried her. "Hi, I'm Jenn. What's your name?"
"Circenn. I'm four summers old now!"
Jenn couldn't help a grin. Little Circenn had puffed out his chest with his importance. "I'll bet you're starting to hunt with your dad, huh," Jenn asked as she continued her examination.
"Father is teaching me what the tracks look like." The boy nodded his head in delight.
"A friend of mine learned to hunt when he was just about your age. He's a great tracker now."
Circenn had a wide look of wonder. "I'm going to be the bestest hunter ever!"
Jenn smiled. "I'm sure you will." And she moved on to the next child.
Jennifer and Marie set up an oxygen tent at the end of the ward and issued an anti-inflammatory to the children.
Ordinarily, Jenn loved working with children. They were a joy to play with and watch grow. Today, she would have given anything to not be treating them. She put on a professional face and went to talk with the two worried mothers.
"I'd estimate between fifteen and twenty percent of their lungs are damaged. We'll need to stabilize them a bit and get them back to Atlantis for further treatment, but they should be ok. We'll keep a close eye on them for the next couple of weeks." Jennifer tried to inject as much confidence as she could in her tone of voice.
"Thank you, Healer." The grateful mother kissed the palm of her hand and touched it to Jenn's palm.
Jenn awkwardly returned the gesture. The very next time she had the opportunity, she was going to take some basic diplomatic courses. She never knew just how to handle these situations.
"There's no need for thanks. I just want to help." And she went on to check her patients.
Ronon was close to the trio of hunters. The sign was fresher. More careless as they tried to stay ahead of the fire. One of them was injured. Ronon poured on more speed as cinders singed his duster and burned in the air. The path was less frantic, more purposed. Ronon sincerely hoped the hunters knew of a shelter from the fire. There was a burning quality in the air that suggested he needed to find that shelter himself.
Teyla was getting scared. The road leading back to Base Camp was impassable. The fire line was cutting across the valley the path led into.
"Arno," Teyla addressed the bailiff. "Is there any water nearby? Perhaps a wide barren area? We need a safe place to let the fire pass us."
The bailiff paused a moment. "I believe there is an open space not far from here." He took a minute to cough the smoke from his lungs. "I think we could make it there in time."
"Very well. Lead the way." Teyla took a quick head count and assessed how able the villagers were to hurry. There were some few that required aid.
She went and shouldered up an older man. "We must hurry, Grandfather."
John was getting worried. There had been no contact with half his team for hours. More than three hours. He tapped his radio. "Rodney. Get out your sensors and tell me if there's anything preventing communications around here."
"Of course," Rodney's voice came back. "Because all I'm doing here is sitting on my ass."
"Rodney," John interrupted with exaggerated patience, "we haven't had any communication from either Teyla or Ronon in hours."
"Well, why didn't you say so. Give me a minute."
John tried very hard to focus on the job at hand as he flew Jumper 1 to the nearest lake to scoop up water.
Now Rodney was worried. His team was one of the central pillars of his life. He realized a long time ago he'd do nearly any thing for any one of them. It took longer to realize they'd do the same for him.
And now, two of them were walking in the mouth of the monster. He ran a few permutations through his pad. The results were so not good. There was a high density iron deposit interfering with radio communications. It was a miracle they had communications at Base Camp.
There was no way to know if Ronon or Teyla needed help.
Jennifer and her staff worked rapidly. The people from the fourth village came down out of the mountains. There weren't any in good shape. In fact, all of them had varying degrees of lung damage. There were first and second degree burns from cinders floating down to the ground.
The air was getting thinner from so much oxygen burning away.
They needed to get everybody back through to Atlantis. Circenn wasn't responding to antibiotics. His hacking cough sounded all too familiar. "Hey, Circenn. Just wanted to listen to you breathe again." Jenn listened to his lungs one more time. As he breathed in, she asked, "Well, since you're on your way to being a hunter, I'll bet you have a girlfriend."
His laughter was punctuated by his coughing. "Jenn, I'm just a kid."
Jenn grinned at him. "You might be a kid, but you're the handsomest guy around." She'd probably better run a blood test, but it sure as Hell sounded like pneumonia.
The tracks just ended. Again. Right in front of a mother loving wall. There could be no mistake. The ground around the last twenty yards of the trail was damp. Easy to follow. It just ended. There was an oversized shrub just to the side. Ronon pushed behind it and found a depression in the cliff. He pulled out his sword and cleared the shrub out of the way. It was more than just a depression. It was a full-blown cave in the wall. Ronon ducked inside. It smelled undisturbed with a whiff of water inside.
"Did everybody make it?" Ronon asked the darkness.
"We're here. Cian is in a bad way, but we should make it through the fire." The man sounded like he was fairly close.
Ronon felt his way around to the back of the cave as his eyes gradually got used to the dark. "It should be on us soon. How much water is in that spring?"
"Enough."
Ronon dropped his duster off him. He pulled his shirt over his head, pulled a knife out of one of his dreads and cut the shirt into four pieces. "Here," he rumbled as he passed out the pieces. "Dip it in the water and hold it over your mouth and nose."
Ronon looked around for anything that might further shield them from the heat. The rocks littering the cave floor could work. Then again, they might just radiate the heat from the fire into the cave. Ronon reasoned it was probably better than nothing as he moved the first of the rocks over to the entrance.
"Rodney, I need you to calm down a minute. If you take a jumper up a couple of thousand feet, you might be able to triangulate Ronon's and Teyla's tracking devices from up there," Sheppard's commanding confidence offered hope in the chaos of the smoke and heat.
Rodney allowed himself to smile for the first time in a half hour. He snapped his fingers rapidly. "You know, that just might work. I can boost the sensors in the jumper and narrow the bandwidth. I just might be able to find them."
"I knew you'd figure it out, Rodney. Now find them." Rodney barely acknowledged him. He was already off to the jumper with his pad, entering commands as he went.
Jennifer was just glad Rodney was out from underfoot. His hypochondria had toned down in the two years she'd known him, but it reared its head at inopportune times. Right now, she had a little boy that was worsening and two villages of people she needed to get evacuated. Marines had been filtering into Base Camp all afternoon and the infirmary staff was keeping them filled up on coffee. They all needed to get off Scarabrae as soon as possible. Damn! If these people didn't develop COPD, if would be a miracle.
Another blessing of living in Pegasus. No pollution to damage lungs or cause cancer. Somehow, she didn't think that would balance out the travel brochures against life sucking wraith and bio-engineered diseases. Jenn shook her head. Never work.
"Amanda, I need you to take Circenn and his mom to Atlantis. Get him under the scanner. He should be responding to those antibiotics by now." Jenn watched the boy in the oxygen tent closely. There had to be something she missed.
"I'll get him back and we'll get his meds adjusted," Doctor Cole assured Jenn. "What are you going to do?"
"Marie and I will be staying here to wait for Teyla and her group of villagers and Ronon. There's a better than good chance they'll need help." Jenn couldn't help searching the tree line for their missing people, for Ronon. "I'm sending Sara to the Alpha Site to keep an eye on the patients there."
John seldom felt as useless as he did here and now. The fire was winning. He was only doing this to buy time for everyone to evacuate.
Only not everyone had evacuated yet.
Half his team - his family - was down there in harm's way with no way to communicate with them. No way to save them. It was worse than Afghanistan.
How useless was it to drop water on a fire that drought conditions, heat, and high winds were spreading faster than they could douse it?
He didn't know how to fine tune the sensors to see beyond 'high density iron ore deposits.' So he was stuck dumping water.
Teyla studied the clearing Arno led them to. It was the best they could hope for in the time allotted. "You must stay as close to the center of the clearing as possible." When she turned to direct them how best to defend themselves, Teyla saw the younger ones clearing a hasty fire break. The older ones were showing the children how to cover their mouths and noses. With a nod of satisfaction, Teyla got to work.
"Are there any loose rocks over there?" The smoke added a rasp to Ronon's voice.
Cian struggled to raise his head to survey the wall near him. "There are some. However, I don't think they'll be sufficient." He broke off as a bout of coughing overtook him. Specks of blood sprayed out from his mouth.
Ronon squatted near Cian. "How bad are you really hurt?" he asked in a low voice.
"I broke a couple of ribs. Pretty sure one of them touched a lung."
"Why didn't you wrap them?" Ronon reached for his duster. "Give me a hand over here," he called to the others. Together, they got Cian to a sitting position. Ronon wrapped his coat around his torso and secured it with his belt.
Ronon met the gazes of the two other men. "He can't be moved. Not if we can help it." The others seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. Ronon didn't really think so. If a broken rib had already pierced a lung, he could drown in his own blood long before help could arrive or they could help themselves. The rib might have nicked other vital organs and he'd be bleeding internally. Ronon honestly didn't think Cian would live out the week. Much less a trip out of the wilds to the Ring.
For a brief moment, a smile of pure joy spread across Rodney's face. "I found one of them! I found one!" When no one chimed in to congratulate him, he looked around surprised no one was in the jumper with him. He tapped his headset. "Sheppard! I've isolated one of their signals."
"Great job, Rodney. Now get over there and see if you can help out."
"Oh of course. It's up to the brilliant scientist to do everything." He continued grumbling as he thought the jumper to location of the life sign.
"Teyla, Ronon. Do you read me?" Rodney was edging toward panic. He'd been calling them for the five minutes it took to fly to the locator and there had been no response. His agile, catastrophist mind couldn't help but come up with worse case scenarios. Each was worse than the last.
Teyla almost missed the crackle of static from her radio amongst the frenetic activity around her.
"This is Teyla. Colonel? Rodney? Can you hear me?" A lifetime of pushing her limits told Teyla she could survive the blazes coming. But the children? Her heart clenched at the thought of Torren being in such danger. The elderly? With their weakening hearts and lungs they might not survive. "Colonel?" she tried again against any hope of rallying help.
"Oh, thank God you're alive. I thought . . . I thought . . . Well never mind what I thought." Rodney's voice tripped over itself through the communicators.
"Rodney, I need you here quickly. The fire will soon be upon us and there are people who need to get to the base camp."
"Wh-what do you mean the fire is almost on you? You should be miles ahead of it still."
"The wind has shifted. Already, I smell not just smoke but the burning itself."
"Okay, okay. I'll be there in just a few seconds."
And for the first time since Ronon left to find the hunters, Teyla breathed a bit easier. There was nothing her team couldn't overcome together. She scanned the sky for the jumper but the terrain and trees obscured the view until the last minute.
"No. That will never do. What were you thinking, Teyla?"
"I was thinking this is the only clearing in the area and it might offer a measure of protection against the flames," she answered stiffly.
Rodney set down the jumper and opened the back hatch. "I can't carry all of you at once and there's not enough time to ferry you down to base camp." Once again, disaster scenes played through his mind.
Teyla cut through his building anxiety. "Perhaps if you were to extend the jumper's shield. We could all be spared."
Rodney shook a finger and visibly brightened up. "You know. That could work." He made his way back to the cockpit. "Get everyone as close as they can to the jumper. I don't want to attenuate the shield too much."
Teyla and Arno were already gathering the villagers close.
Jenn was starting to think - on one level anyway - that it was a bad idea to send everyone through the gate. The only thing she had left to do was worry. Worry about Ronon. Worry about Circenn. Worry about all her other charges who were not currently in her care.
Worry.
Worry.
Worry.
And nothing to be done about it.
Teyla firmly directed Rodney into the jumper. "These people will be comforted knowing you are monitoring the shields."
"Yes. Yes. The shields." Rodney tried his best to cough the smoke from his lungs, but it was too thick. Hell of a time to not have a personal shield filtering the air for you.
The blaze was a scant one hundred fifty meters away when Rodney found the perfect balance of spreading the shield wide and the strength of that shield.
Children cried. It didn't seem possible, even to the adults, that they could survive the inferno sweeping over them. Several prayed to the Ancestors.
Arno watched in horrified wonder as the wave of flames crashed over their heads. He was astonished that he felt none of the heart he expected. What an amazing thing.
It had been a long, freakishly quiet two hours. Ronon had heard the sap crackling and trees exploding earlier while he tracked his silent companions. Even Cian's periodic coughing seemed a hollow empty sound.
Finally, Ronon deemed enough time passed and the worst of the fire passed over. Even a cursory look in the general area told Ronon finding materials to make a travois would take some creativity. Fortunately, he had years of making do with very little.
He made his way down the path he was on earlier. This trip was very different. Where before the animals in the area were panicked and the roar of the fire nearly drowned out all other sounds. Now, all the sounds were hollow and echoed through the hills.
A mile from the cave, there was a sahe dead near the trail. The Lanteans called them near deer. He pulled out a knife and quickly skinned the animal. It might smell bad, but the skin would be big enough to make a travois for Cian.
John felt the tightness in his chest ease a bit. Rodney's radio communication saying Teyla was safe couldn't come at a better time. He had just about decided to join the search. High density iron ores or not.
Now he just had one more part of his family that needed to be found. "Rodney, talk me through how to adjust my scanners so I can look for Ronon."
Jenn was trying not to make a habit out of scanning the edges of the meadow looking for Ronon. Which was a little foolish. He was the most capable person in the galaxy.
What she ought to be doing was getting ready for the villagers Rodney was going to be ferrying to base camp. "Marie, is that O2 tent still up?"
"It's still up. We've still got a good supply of bandages and salve as well. We're just waiting for people to show up." Marie had only answered the questions twice in the last ten minutes.
"I think that's part of the problem. Waiting," sighed Jenn.
"He'll be ok, Jenn."
She took a deep breath, "I know that. It's just, this isn't something he can shoot or throw a knife at. He's got to be faster than the fire. He's got to get lucky and find shelter."
"Rodney, I believe you should take Arno with you this first trip to base camp." Teyla was triaging the villagers. The elderly and small ones likely needed to be treated by Doctor Keller soon. Everyone coughed, but they coughed less.
"Well, cram him in here, too. What's one more?" Rodney snarked.
Teyla smiled. When Rodney snarked, she knew there was a solution. "Should the others and I wait here or should we make our way toward the stargate?"
Rodney studied the group. "Stay here. I don't know how easily I might be able to find your signal again. And they don't look like they can make it."
"That was my thought as well. Make haste, please, Rodney."
For the first time, Rodney noticed her state of dishevelment. "I won't be long. We'll get home soon," he awkwardly reassured her.
Ronon held Cian's gaze. "This is going to hurt like Hell."
Cian nodded. "Do it. Kimber's going to be waiting for me at your base camp."
Ronon signaled Silvan. At some unknown mark, both men lifted and laid Cian on the litter. "Kimber your heartmate?" Ronon asked to distract him from his pain.
"Pretty Kimber. We've been bound for two summers and a young one now brightens the home." A smile ghosted across his lips even as pain clouded his eyes.
Daegus lifted his companion's litter and the group started down the trail. Silvan ranged out ahead of the trio in wide circles. Cian was fading fast. Ronon tried to keep him talking as he'd seen Jennifer do. "Tell me about your heartmate."
"Pretty Kimber. Her hair is as black as night and her eyes are a stormy gray." A faint smile graced his face.
"And the day you knew she was your heartmate?" Ronon continued as they picked their way down the trail.
"We had a fight that day. I don't remember what about, but I was afraid she'd never speak with me again. Really afraid. I knew then." Cian's voice was little more than a whisper in the breeze.
Ronon almost wished he hadn't asked. The man was dying right in front of him and there was nothing he could do. He couldn't even do anything for the pain Cian had to be feeling. He could only honor this good man by remembering him.
"Tell me of your heartmate." The question came unexpectedly.
Ronon's mouth quirked. "Who says I have one?" Anything to keep the man conscious.
"Do you deny it?"
Silvan interrupted them before Ronon could answer. "There's a lot of dead fall just ahead. It's going to take the three of us to get Cian over it."
Daegus nodded and Silvan took one of the litter poles from him. Ronon knelt and picked up the foot poles of the travois. "Keep his head elevated."
They continued down the trail in step to prevent jostling Cian too much. "How is it you know so much of what to do?"
"I was a runner." The way he stated it with no inflection brought their attention sharply to him. "I'm with the Lanteans now. But for seven years I survived."
"So you are the one legends are told of. It is good that you lived," Silvan stated. Ronon still wasn't entirely sure of that. So much had been lost. He'd been slow to realize that what he had now perhaps couldn't replace what he had then, but it could more than fill up the empty pieces of his soul.
"Yeah." Ronon offered a smile to show they weren't poking too hard at painful memories.
Daegus spoke up from ahead, "We still haven't heard of your - heartmate was it?"
Ronon made an affirmative sounding noise. "She's one of the Lanteans. A healer. She's fierce when it comes to her patients, but very shy and hesitant in almost everything else."
Cian's wispy smile became sly. "Now we know the real reason you know all about wound care. What's her name?"
"Jenn. She'll be down at the base camp near the Ring of the Ancestors. You'll meet her there."
"McKay, how high were you before you were able to track Teyla's position?" John futzed with the controls trying to get them to fine tune.
"I was at five thousand meters. That was about two thousand meters above the mountains."
"Copy that, Rodney. Cross your fingers." John mentally crossed his as the jumper rose in the air.
"Yes. Because I'm the superstitious type," Rodney snapped back at John. "Bring the giant caveman home."
John guided his jumper to the coordinates Rodney found Teyla and soared in the air. "Teyla, come in."
"John, it is good to hear your voice." Teyla sounded outright exhausted. There was very little of the brightness that usually colored her voice.
"Same with you. I'm going to see if I can locate Ronon. Do you know which direction from you he went?"
He heard her conferring with someone. "The villagers say their hunters were going west of the village these last days. We have since come south of the village about fifteen kilometers."
"I'll find him. Take care. I'm sure Torren is looking forward to seeing his mommy."
Teyla smiled. She certainly was looking forward to seeing her baby. But now, she needed to focus on keeping her charges safe and calm.
"Excuse me, Friend Teyla. Your friend is looking for the others, yes?"
"Colonel Sheppard will do all he can to find Ronon and the others," Teyla reassured. "We have not formally me. I am Teyla Emmagan. Daughter of Tagan of Athos. You are?"
"I'm Nessa. My bond-mate is one of those your friend went to find." Nessa's face was smeared with smoke and dirt. She looked as weary as Teyla felt.
"Ronon will do everything possible to bring him back to you safely." Confidence colored every note of Teyla's voice. "But that doesn't stop you from worrying," she observed.
"My Daegus knows the land. He would have found somewhere safe. But this . . . this destroyed everything. I've never seen anything like it," Nessa wept.
"The people of Atlantis will help your people rebuild. They are good people."
"That is a comfort. I worry also for your children. This day has been a trial to everybody." Nessa's exhausted body staggered as she found a rock to rest on.
"Doctor Keller is very capable. She will do everything possible for her patients," Teyla encouraged.
With a satisfied nod, Nessa dozed off in a troubled rest.
Kimber had everything to worry about. Her baby, Gavin, continued to cough. Even in the special tent, he didn't seem to get better. Cian and the others were still missing. And she was too worried and too tired to sleep.
"I know it doesn't seem it, but his coughing is helping him just now. He's doing much better. I think if we keep him the next couple of days breathing in the oxygen, he will ultimately recover. I'll send doctors to check for secondary problems, but he'll be ok." Jenn injected warmth and comfort in her voice.
"Thank you, Healer." Kimber kissed her hand and touched it to Jenn's. "There is so much to fret over. It is good to know Gavin will be all right."
"Is Gavin's father still with the rest of your people?"
"No. He is one of those out hunting. One of your men volunteered to find them and bring them out of the mountains."
"Ronon," Jenn stated wryly. "He'll do what he can to get them here safely. And if I know Ronon, a few things no one thought can be done as well."
Kimber rocked Gavin in the same manner she did when he was sick. "Have you heard from them?"
"Actually, I haven't. But our leader, Colonel Sheppard, is taking the jumper to find them." This time, Jenn's gaze didn't sweep the tree line but the skies.
Her radio chirped to life. "Jennifer, I'm bringing in the second group of villagers. Better get that . . . that . . . guy handy to help you with everyone coming."
Jenn tapped her radio. "Got that, Rodney. We're ready here."
Cian coughed again and a fine mist of blood sprayed the air. "We're stopping here," Ronon called. "He's getting weaker."
Daegus glanced over his shoulder. "You've got to hang on. You're not making me explain to Kimber what happened to you." His eyes locked with Cian's, begging him to live.
"You'll have to," Cian breathed. "No way am I making it to the Ring." His voice was almost non existent.
"Hell with that. Sheppard and McKay are looking for us. We'll be in Atlantis before you know it. Jenn will patch you up, and you'll be with Kimber and Gavin by evening meal tomorrow." Ronon willed this brave man to hold on.
"Daegus, you must look after Kimber. Teach Gavin for me" Cian managed to say.
"I have seen the Lanteans bring people back from the very edge of death. They've brought me back from there. You just have to want to live." Ronon searched for any sign of him holding on. Cian's face was so gray. He was about so say something else when he heard static in his earpiece.
"Told you they were looking for us." He tapped the radio. "Sheppard? McKay? Are you there?"
"Ronon, buddy! Glad to hear your voice." Ronon broke out in a relieved grin hearing Sheppard sounding in his ear. "I'm having a hard time triangulating in on you. Can you give me your position?"
"We're about ten kilometers west of the village in a dry river valley. You need to hurry. Cian's got to get to Jenn as soon as possible." Ronon started scanning the skies.
Silvan and Daegus turned to Cian who was quietly wheezing. "Help is coming, Cian. Live for Kimber. Live for Gavin." Silvan encouraged. The pair were visibly willing their friend to continue on. Cian didn't respond.
Cian didn't anything. His wheezing had stopped.
Daegus checked to see if he was breathing, checked his pulse at his neck and felt nothing. Hopeless grief filled him
Ronon reached slowly and tapped his communicator. "No need to hurry, Sheppard."
The whole village gathered at the edge of the clearing base camp was centered at. Word had spread among them. Cian died. The women gathered around Kimber waiting for their missing numbers.
Sheppard settled the jumper in the field. The four men bore the litter out the back with Daegus and Silvan leading the way. Kimber stepped forward and touched Cian's cooling brow.
"He died well?" Tears streamed down her face.
"He fought to stay alive. For you and for Gavin," Silvan said in a rough voice.
She looked in Ronon's ash and smoke smudged face. "Thank you for bringing him to me."
"I'm sorry we didn't get him here in time." Regret was etched under the smoke and soot on his face.
"Healer, how soon before we must leave for your Alpha Site? Cian must be prepared for burial." Kimber wouldn't look up from him. Her hands stroked his brow gently.
"Oh. Um. I don't know." She looked to John for cues. "You all need an oxygen treatment and a day or two under observation." Jenn let her voice trail off for lack of a definitive answer.
"With all the people accounted for, we're starting to call back the jumpers dropping water on the fire. Probably a half hour or so."
Kimber's stricken face searched out Arno. "We must do the Rite of Braeken. We've enough here to do it in the time we're given." Her reddened eyes pleaded with Arno, with Jenn, with Ronon. "This is the place he loved and this is where he deserved to rest."
"Sheppard," Ronon growled.
John must have recognized a hidden need or the implicit threat in Ronon's growl, because he nodded his assent.
That night, two days after the call for help had come, the Lanteans were safe at home. Circenn was finally responding to the antibiotics. Ronon and Jenn were up in the observatory looking out over the vast ocean. Jenn snuggled deep into Ronon's arms. The slight rasp in his breath was a not so subtle reminder of how the rescue mission could have gone horribly wrong for them.
"Have you ever had to do that?" The intimacy seemed to invite him to ask.
Jenn ran her hand up and down one of his arms. "That what?"
"Watch someone die that slowly? He tried so hard to make it back to his family, but there just wasn't enough time." How could he promise he'd always come back to her? Cian undoubtedly made the same promise to his Kimber.
"Not often. People die of so many things and here, in the middle of a war, it's seldom slowly." Jenn shifted a bit so she could study his face. "What are you thinking?"
For a long time, Ronon stared at the moonlight on the water. How could he possibly ask her for forever when forever might be so horribly short? "I was wondering what I can possibly offer you. The constant threat of me not coming back?"
Jenn took his face between her hands and held his gaze. "You can promise me that you love me and always will. You can promise me that nothing short of death will stop you from coming home to me." She held his eyes with her own until she read the acceptance in them.
"Can promise that." After a long moment of getting lost in her eyes, of drinking in the promises he read there, he shifted her again so Jenn was nestled in his arms again.
"I got Chuck to give me a hand with something a couple of weeks ago." Ronon broke the quiet.
Jenn was startled. "Chuck? Why?"
"I needed to get a message to Earth. Chuck set me up with a video."
His reputation was certainly well earned. Trying to get him to talk was damn near impossible. "What message and for who?"
"It was to your Dad. According to some of the movies, you're supposed to get the blessing of your heartmate's father before you ask her to marry you."
Jenn's heart started pounding, and she stopped breathing. "You asked Dad for his blessing?" She turned in his arms. This was too important to not see his eyes - what he was thinking.
"And he gave it." Ronon's eyes twinkled with delight. "You know heartmates are forever on Sateda, right?" Jenn just nodded her head. "To make it official for the Council of Chiefs, the couple walks the Cerque Ceremony."
"Tell me about it."
"It's a ceremony of promise. It shows that love has no beginning or end; that the two people become one." He gently caressed her cheek with one hand. It was impossible to think what life might be like without her. She added such a warmth and light to his life.
"Are there any Satedans left who know the ceremony? On Croya or Manaria?" Jenn blushed. Even after all these weeks with Ronon, she wasn't used to being forward.
"Are you asking me to walk the Cerque Ceremony with you?" Ronon's eyes gleamed with delight - with love.
Jenn squared her shoulders somewhat. "Yes I am. Will you walk the Cerque Ceremony with me? Marry me?"
Ronon lifted her up to his level and kissed her. "Yes." All thoughts of the stress and tears from the last days were gone. Hope for the future - their future - burst upon them.
A/N 2 - And there you have it. This is the longest fic that is all done and in one piece. Hope you all liked it. Reviews are like rainbow sherbet on a hot day. Love.