"So, that's it", John said as he stood on the balcony of the gateroom. "We're on our own again."
"It's not so bad." Evan leaned against the railing more casually than John had ever seen him before.
"You only say because you weren't here for the first time."
Evan gave him one of his enigmatic smiles that John had come to believe meant "bring it".
"You're coming?" Ronon asked from the doorway.
/
Any reservations John might have held against stealing Atlantis and returning to Pegasus without the IOC's permission melted away the moment he saw Teyla reunited with Torren. For that alone it had been worth it.
"It's good to be home", John said as he straddled Ronon's lap that night.
Ronon shrugged and grabbed John's shirt right over his heart as if to say "You're home."
John kissed him because he hadn't forgotten yet how close he had been to losing Ronon, again. They always seemed to lose each other as if the universe got some perverse pleasure out of pitting them against each other.
Ronon tasted like hope and home. He tasted like salt from the sea and sweet like the night sky. He tasted like death and redemption and a hunger so deep that John thought this could actually last.
He pulled Ronon's shirt off and in the dim light his skin looked flawless when John knew it wasn't. Ronon's body was a map of scars and pain that had been almost too much to bear. But right now John could pretend that Ronon wasn't fragile, wasn't mortal.
/
It was better than the first time they had been cut off from Earth. This time there were already an established power in Pegasus and weren't blindly stumbling through everything.
They had allies, they had enemies, and they had the fragile ceasefire with Todd's wraith.
Woolsey held a speech in front of the Alliance and to Radim's chagrin Atlantis was accepted as a member on the same day.
"Do you miss Earth?" Ronon asked him, nuzzling his neck and John couldn't give him an answer.
He hadn't thought about Earth in months.
/
"So much for that Noble Prize", Rodney said one day during lunch.
"Look at it this way, no one here is going to win any prizes any time soon", John tried to cheer him up. Judging by Rodney's glare he wasn't very successful.
"Carson said the same thing."
"Well, he's right, isn't he?"
"As if that voodoo nonsense should get nominated in the first place", Rodney rolled his eyes.
"You weren't complaining when he stitched you up after you got caught in that brier wood. "
"I never said it was useless voodoo did I?"
"Shut up, Rodney", Radek said from the seat next to him which sent him and Rodney right into a squabbling match that John found way too entertaining to break up.
/
Lorne left around the five year mark. He came into Woolsey's office and handed in his resignation.
"Where will you go?" Woolsey asked, flabbergasted.
"Home", Evan said with one of his enigmatic smiles and asked Chuck to deal New Athos.
John smiled when he saw Teyla reaching for Evan's hand just before they stepped through the gate.
"Did you know?" He asked Ronon who had his arm slung over John's shoulders.
Ronon gave him a look that plainly said "of course I did."
/
John, Ronon and Rodney took out another hive ship on the day Teyla gave birth to her and Evan's daughter.
Rodney complained when they named Ronon her godfather and then stumbled over his own words when Teyla told him that her name was Tagan Meredith.
"Did you want a family?" John asked later in the privacy of their tent. He had never brought it up before because, well.
"Did you?" Ronon asked back instead of answering.
John thought about Nancy, about his father and about obligations and expectations. He shook his head.
Ronon held his gaze as he slowly leaned in to kiss him, sweet and slow and thorough.
"I love you", John said because how could he not? With Ronon he could find the words, could say them and so he did.
"Me, too", Ronon replied as he pulled John on top of him.
/
John might get slower during their morning run with every passing month but Ronon merely teased him about it instead of going running with someone else.
There were downsides to having a younger boyfriend after all.
Not that John complained about Ronon's stamina.
Not much at least.
/
They finally defeated the Wraith fourteen years after they had first arrived in Pegasus. There were celebrations on Atlantis, New Athos and on the Genii's homeworld as well.
John went with Ronon to Sateda to honour their fallen. Nature had reclaimed many of the buildings by now and one day nothing would remain of the people that had once lived and died here. No one wanted to come back to Sateda. Too many ghosts haunted the ruins and old roads.
It was eerie but peaceful at the same time.
Ronon cut off most of his hair and burned it in a ruin that looked like it had been a temple once. Afterwards he took the ashes and drew an intricate pattern on his right arm. It would later become another tattoo, a mix of Atlantis' eighth chevron and Sateda's gate address.
"Never again", Ronon said, his voice breaking.
"Never again", John repeated. He stood next to Ronon and took Ronon's hands into his and held them, palm to palm, their fingers laced until Ronon stopped shaking.
/
"You're going grey", Ronon said, combing his fingers through John's hair.
"I can still kick your ass", John replied half-heartedly.
Ronon laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.