Stolen

Chapter 1

"Figured I'd find you here," Wick leaned against the door to the Atlantis gym. Ripley spared him a glance as she worked on the lat pull down. She was alone in the gym and had very much preferred it that way, but Wick wasn't having it. "Wanna talk?"

"What is there to say?" She asked darkly as she pulled the weights down and let them up at a steady pace. "He's made his choice." Sweat dripped down the back of her neck and reminded her that she had been in the gym for more than an hour.

Wick slid his hands into his pockets, watched the woman carefully. "Have you?"

The weights fell with a clang and she leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "Dan," Ripley began, her voice was soft, but dead-like. Wick hated the use of his first name, especially from Ripley. "He doesn't want me. That's all there is."

"There's gotta be more to it."

"I don't know what to tell you," she shrugged her sore shoulders. She took a steadying breath and willed herself not to cry. "I gave him everything I was, all that I had and he let me go." She rose from the bench. "Lesson learned." She stooped to lift her water bottle and glanced at him. "That all?" She brushed by him, stopped as he grabbed her arm.

"Are you okay?" His green eyes watched as her brown eyes glimmered with fresh tears.

"It's nothing booze and hockey can't fix." She answered and left him.

"But not your team." He said to the empty gym. "Not your brothers."

0-0-0

Owen was the next batter up. He had tried to break Craig Baxter down, but the man hadn't budged, and had looked almost as hurt as Ripley, but not so hurt that he hadn't slipped his room location to a nurse. Bennett sighed, men could be so stupid. Craig wanted off Atlantis, Rip wouldn't budge. Relationship over. He glanced at his watch, 2100hrs; God willing Rip would be awake. He opened the door to her quarters. It was pitch black inside. "Don't you knock?" Ripley asked from the cozy armchair that occupied a corner of her room, a bottle of Blue Moon dangled from her fingers and her scowl was a welcome relief. A sad country song crooned in the background about a stupid boy.

"Don't you believe in lights?" The SEAL proceeded to flip them on and drew in a small breath at the six empty bottles that littered the floor. "Rip."

"Stop," She lifted the bottle and pointed it at him. "I don't want a lecture and I sure as hell don't want a pep talk."

"It's nine o'clock at night and you're sitting in the dark wallowing in beer listening to sad country music. What do you want me to do?"

"To leave me alone."

Owen rolled his black eyes. "Stop self-pitying."

"I'm only self-pitying if I say I'll never find anyone again." She pointed out easily.

"Will you?"

"Fuck no, but I didn't say that 'till now."

Owen sighed and sat on the edge of her bed. "What happened?"

"Said we were friends trying to be in a relationship," she sneered at her bottle. "Pussy footed around it for two fucking hours." Had it really only been eighteen hours ago? She thought and felt the tears begin to fall. "One year of my life is gone, wasted."

"It wasn't wasted Rip."

"Oh obviously," she snapped sarcastically.

"You're twenty-six; you have seventy-four years give or take to find another one."

"Friends trying to be in a relationship," Ripley repeated. "Is that guy code for something? Is that a code for 'I'm cheating' or 'I'm gay' or 'I found someone better'. Any of that?" She rose from her chair only to fall back as the room spun. Deftly she finished her beer and pulled out another from her mini fridge.

"It's a coward's way out," said Owen as she popped the top on bottle number seven. "He was bored or he was afraid of commitment."

"I never asked for a fuckin' ring."

"But you wanted it."

Ripley took a swig of her beer. "Every woman does."

"And every man knows that, we're constantly terrified of it." Owen took the bottle from her. "You've had enough."

"What are you my mother?" She snapped and tried to take it back. She fell faced forward into her hockey bag. "Fuck me." She groaned.

"Well, you're single now."

She laughed for the first time all day.

0-0-0

Omega held a meeting without Ripley the next morning. Flea stumbled into Owen's quarters, bleary eyed and still in his Easton sweat pants. "What's up?"

"Where in the hell have you been?" Wick, coffee in hand, snapped. "We're picking up the pieces of Rip and you're doing jack shit."

Flea winced and rubbed his temples. "Wick, tone it down." His head felt like a damn frying pan had hit it multiple times.

Owen big, black and burly rose from the sitting area. "Boy, I ought to whip you. You cared more about getting trashed then about Rip?"

"I've been off world numb nuts," Flea sat down on the couch. "And believe me the natives are very friendly."

"When you come off your sex high and hang over maybe we can think about Toddy for a minute?" Slovak offered from the diagonal arm chair. The Russian who had made himself part of Omega looked from one man to the other. "She's broken up; I mean he has fucked her over."

"She didn't wanna play hockey last night," Wick added. "I offered after Owen left her."

"That's how you know Rip's fucked up," Bennett said. "Same as high school."

"I forgot you guys went to high school together," Wick admitted with a sheepish grin. "You seen this before?"

"Not this bad."

"So, what did she say?" Flea accepted the coffee that Wick had prepared for him, and burnt his tongue on the first sip.

Wick sighed as he sat beside Flea. "Classic Ripley response, y'know, nothing booze and hockey can't or won't fix."

"She's doing the booze pretty well," said Owen darkly as he stood hipshot by the armchair he had occupied. "We should fuck Craig up."

"Bennett…"

"We should, ya know how easy it'd be to fuck him up? He's just a doctor, a pudgy fucking bastard."

"You're not at all mad about this are you?" Slovak drawled sarcastically. Owen shot him the finger. "Should we drag her to play hockey? Make her watch a game?"

"Maybe she just needs to be alone right now?" Flea offered. The other three shot a look at him. He lifted his hands in surrender, as the youngest in the group he had the least experience. "We could tell Jess."

"Do you think Jess knows yet?" Wick asked as he thought about the Air Force lieutenant. "Or Mary? Or Robyn?"

"I don't know dude, but if anyone can whip Rip into shape it's Jess." Flea answered.

"I don't know if whipping is what she needs at the moment," Owen interjected. The trio lifted their brows. "Look, Ripley isn't always a fuckin' hard ass, there are bruises in there, and some of them run deep. Rejection, if not initiated by her, is a big one."

Wick rubbed a hand over his forehead and shook his head. "So you're sayin' if she'd broken up with him, she'd be fine?"

"Not fine, just better off."

"So…?" Slovak prompted.

"So we need to….coddle her." Owen answered.

"Coddle?" Flea looked at Wick confusedly. "Speak American."

"He means baby her," Slovak rolled his eyes. "How do you baby Rip?"

"I have no idea," Owen sat with a sigh. "I really don't."

"It's not like we can give her a bubble bath, champagne, polish her nails, do facials or that kinda thing." Flea said after a moment's thought.

"No but we have beer and Funyuns."

"How about we keep her away from booze for the next month or so," Owen decided with a slight smirk.

"I say we call in the estrogen and then we'll take over."

"All right…who gets to play messenger?" Slovak asked. His team turned toward him, and Owen grinned. "Fuck."

0-0-0

Sergei Slovak didn't often shy away from women, he was a member of the Russian army, a six foot six blond, blue eyed wall of muscle, but to set foot in Robyn Fairday's lab was the toughest thing he had done since coming to Atlantis. The tall curvy woman was bent over the microscope in front of her while Fall Out Boy played in the background. This week her hair was as bright as a copper penny where as the week before it had been siren red. He shook his head, women confused him. Rip was easy, always had been, just one of the guys. Her friends on the other hand must have all made up her female side. "Dr. Fairday." He said gently. The head popped up, and green eyes zeroed in. She smiled in greeting, but it faded as she caught his nervous fiddling.

"What's wrong Sergei?" She asked. She was one of the few who called him by his first name, and at once he felt guilty that he was here to be a burden. "Is Omega okay? Is Rip?"

"It's about Rip…" He admitted.

Robyn set aside the slide she had been working on. "What happened?" Sergei explained it to as quickly and efficiently as he could. She lifted a hand to her mouth and closed her eyes. "We were hoping…well, Omega was hoping maybe—"

"A woman's touch?" Robyn asked as she skirted around the work bench.

"Yeah." Slovak nodded, and shrugged his broad shoulders.

Robyn smiled warmly, and laid a hand on his muscular forearm. "You're a good man Sergei, all of you are." With that she departed the lab and went in search of two others.

0-0-0

"Go further!" Jess Gerry roared at her teammates, she drew her arm back and hurled the football the length of the hallway. Dennis Seidenberg leaped into the air and got it; he dodged his teammate Tyler Sergy and spiked the ball at the end. Where Ripley had hockey, Jess had her football.

"Jess," Robyn stood at the far end, her hands clasped in front of her. "Minute?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Ripley." With just the name Jess jogged over. Robyn explained as they walked in search of the last member..

"Fuck me running," Jess groaned. "What a fuckin' pussy."

"So eloquently put." Robyn said dryly. Jess grinned. "Any idea where Mary is?"

"Uh, no. Did you check the infirmary?"

"I was trying to avoid it," Robyn admitted. "Unless you want to go to the infirmary?" She grinned wickedly.

Jess grinned back. "Wouldn't hurt to peek in now would it?" In a few moments they regretted peeking in as they had caught Craig in the act with a new nurse. Robyn and Jess returned to the commissary in silence, fury boiling. "Now we know why they were friends…" Jess offered.

"I'll kill him myself," the scientist snarled. The lieutenant's brows winged up at the violence. "Oh, don't look so surprised."

"Proud."

"Mary!" Robyn lifted her arm to wave the nurse over. Mary O'Connell jogged toward them and arrived breathless. "You heard?"

"Everything," Mary lifted the two shopping bags she held. "I've got chips, wine, nail polish, facial masks, bubble bath, a vibrator or two and chocolate."

"How do you do it?" Jess asked with smirk.

"I know people," Mary shrugged as she led the way toward Ripley's room. "Anyways Craig is banging Heidi or whatever her name is."

Robyn gaped. "We saw him with Christina."

"The plot thickens," Mary muttered. They passed Omega who was playing pass in the hallway with sticks and stick handling ball. Wick paused in his pass to cross the air as the women went by. "Thanks Daniel," Mary grinned at him. He shrugged sheepishly.

"May the power of Christ compel you," Flea called after them with a laugh. Jess flipped him the bird.

0-0-0

It was dark in her quarters, pitch black as she was becoming to prefer. Her hockey bag lay untouched in the corner with her sticks laying over it like roses on a grave. She had picked up her room, organized it to keep busy, spent time in the gym and had all but collapsed on the bed when she arrived. Once on the bed she had the urge to strip it and flipped the mattress put on fresh sheets and a new comforter, she wanted his smell gone. She had washed things that had been in his room, including her stuffed teddy bear Bergy. Now at peace with the scent on her bed she lay and stared at her ceiling. The afternoon sun tried to come in past her curtains, but she had taped them to the sill. The sound of her doorbell had her sighing. There was no off world mission planned for the next three days but that didn't mean anything.

"Cut the fuckin' shit!" She hollered as it kept ringing.

"Honey I'm home!" Jess ran into the room and landed on top of Ripley. "Oh god what is that smell? Have you showered?"

"Go the fuck away!" Ripley buried her head beneath her pillow.

"I forgot ice cream," Mary snapped her fingers. "Wick! Ice cream!"

"What kind!" Came the shout back.

"Rocky Road!" Three shouts answered. Wick rolled his eyes and muttered of course. Jess was already hauling Ripley into the bathroom. She flung the water on, and stripped Ripley roughly of her clothing. "I want you shaved, cleaned, and teeth brushed," Jess finished the sentence by shoving Ripley into the burning hot shower.

"Son of a bitch!" The shriek was followed by a scuffle into the wall to turn down the temperature. "Fuck!"

"And there's more where that came from," Robyn shouted with Scottish accent ended with sharp nod. Jess high fived her and they waited patiently while Ripley cleaned herself. Mary brought the ice cream in, lifted over her head like the Stanley Cup. "And he brought spoons." She brandished them like a sword. "Smart man."

Ripley emerged a cloud of steam arriving with her. Jess sniffed the air. "Ah, the fresh scent of, what is that? Secret Wonderland?"

"Spot on." Ripley plopped onto the couch between Jess and Robyn. "So, I guess this has spread over Atlantis." She stretched her long legs clothed in Bauer sweatpants out onto the table.

Mary sighed softly. "It's made its way around."

"That's not the only thing," Jess muttered. Ripley glanced at her. Jess winced at her big mouth.

"So, I was right?" The senior chief whispered softly. Robyn glowered at Jess. "Who?"

"There's conflicting answers," Robyn took the reins. "Heidi or Christina or both."

"Guess he couldn't handle our hockey player," quipped Mary and raised her first glass of wine in salute.

Ripley's sad brown eyes found smiling blue and she offered a slight smile. "Guess so."