This fic is part of SAWS – Spanky a Week Summer. For this summer there will be one Ronon/Teyla story a week posted by a number of different authors.
The Alternates
It was strange, too strange.
Teyla had heard about the alternate universes the SGC had encountered over the years, Atlantis had its own run ins too but this was the first time she'd seen herself, an alternate version of herself. They looked the same, they even had a lot of the same mannerisms and John had commented that even in another universe she was still way too smart. She was different as well though; there was something much more aggressive about her, something that made her seem unapproachable.
This truly was a different world; life here had been unkind to Atlantis in a way that made her own universe seem pleasant. Elizabeth was dead, killed by a Wraith four years after the expedition team arrived. John was like a different person, cold and hard with a single minded desire to destroy the Wraith. Rodney was an angry person, the arrogance was still there but it was hidden so much by the anger that it was barely noticed. Carson was dead, also killed by the Wraith, Lorne had been crippled in a Wraith attack on the city and Cadman had been killed by the Asurans.
Despite all the horrible things she kept hearing about in this world her mind kept coming back to one thing... her and Ronon.
They were together in this reality, partners both on missions and in the bedroom. Ronon had short hair; the dreadlocks had apparently been cut off a few years back so they wouldn't get in his way. His desire to destroy every last Wraith in the galaxy seemed to have tripled and become contagious. He was angry and rough, even with her – her alternate self – a stark contrast to the Ronon she knew.
"Was I ever like that?" Ronon questioned as they sat in the cafeteria, their alternate selves were sat at another table.
"No," Teyla answered honestly, he'd been a little rough around the edges when she'd first met him. He'd had to learn how to live around people again but he'd never been the way his alternate was, never so cold.
"If I ever end up that way just shoot me," he commented as he watched himself and Teyla leave. The alternate him grabbed the alternate her around the arm and pulled her out of the cafeteria behind him, not that the other her was resisting, there was no prizes for guessing where they were going or what they were going to do.
"It is strange to think that if circumstances had been different we would have ended up like that," she said and Ronon looked at her curiously.
"What, mean or together?" he questioned rather boldly.
Teyla looked down to avoid his eyes, a slight blush creeping up her neck. She'd wondered exactly what circumstances had led their alternates to share a bed, she'd wondered even more if there were feelings beyond lust involved. "Both."
"It's not that farfetched," he stated ad Teyla looked at him in surprise; he really was feeling bold today. "I mean they've had it rough, they've lost a lot and their lives are pretty much an endless fight, it's bound to make anyone tough, angry."
Oh, he meant that part.
"I guess all they have is each other," Ronon continued. "And it's bound to make you realise you don't have as much time as you thought you did. If you don't take your chance while it's there you could wind up losing it for good."
This conversation was not going where she thought it would. "What are you saying Ronon?"
"That it would have happened sooner or later, circumstances just made it sooner," he told her simply as though they were talking about two other people and not themselves, a version of themselves anyway. The sooner they got out of here and down to one version of everybody the better.
"Ronon, are you trying to tell me something?" she questioned. She wasn't in the mood for trying to figure out any hidden meaning in his words. She wasn't feeling well, entropic cascade failure, as Rodney had called it, was killing them slowly.
"You already know what I'm saying, you just don't want to say it loud," he told her and she put her hand to her head.
"Apparently neither do you," she said trying to ignore her growing headache.
"Our circumstances are different, we're not there yet," he told her. He stood up and left the cafeteria, she watched him go slightly dumbfounded. That was interesting.
END
