The wind and rain drummed the ground outside. Dead branches of withered tress tapped on the glass of the windows in the lonely tavern.
A flash of lightning briefly illuminated a rare stranger at the bar. But he didn't draw attention to himself for merely being unfamiliar to the somewhat unfriendly locals. His dreadlocks, his clothing were what really set him apart from the pale townspeople. That and his face didn't express their distrust and wariness- his face could have been carved from stone except his green eyes were alive and tinged with sadness.
Ronon Dex was alone offworld. He thought it fitting when he would reflect on what fate had dealt him so far. The last Satedan. Now Teyla's people were also taken, at least, that's what he quietly believed.
Teyla Emmagan.
Then she had vanished too- he never thought she'd go to such lengths, leaving Atlantis, leaving him alone. Perhaps he should have listened harder, tried harder to get her points across to the Atlantis team, understood more her well buried, still simmering frustration at their slow response, their endless debates and tactics. Restraining she who was a leader in her own right. He thought he understood, the need for quick decisive action, but truly he came around too late. Now he was looking for her, he was searching, had for some time now.
But sometimes, something held him back. Just as sure as he was seeking for her she was seeking Kanaan- her people, her first love, her childhood friend.
Even if he found her, he couldn't force her back, but to see her again, that would be priceless. Only, if she wanted to see him- why hadn't she told him she was leaving? Maybe, there were some things he should have whispered to her in those warm nights on the hidden balcony...
No one could understand him as she had. Was he not a good enough to her in return as... a friend?
When Ronon next looked up from his ponderings he found himself almost alone- he noted this while the barman looking him right in the eye in front of him. Ronon was too damn tired to play games. He simply stared back a while.
"Would you like another drink? Try something different," the barman finally said and then moved off. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Ronon making a face at him.
"On the house." The man insisted. He brought the drink he had poured and placed it in front of Ronon. "Sometimes, we stand at a crossroads and life can go two ways. But don't listen to me, I'm just a bartender." He added.
Ronon noticed the man still watching him. The barman doesn't look all that old, he thought. "What?" he asked gruffly. He found his voice was hoarse with disuse.
"The storm will pass soon." The bartender added as he tried and make himself invisible by concentrating on rubbing away at a stain on his bar.
Shrugging inwardly, Ronon took a deep draught then rested his head on his hand, closing his eyes.
Sometime later he left the tavern and returned to Atlantis.
He was welcomed back, as always. Time passed slowly for him, and his occasional journeys to find her failed. Time slowly grew between each attempt. Until, he learned that Teyla had found her people, as after some time to themselves they had re-established contact with Atlantis. Her ties were otherwise broken to them- to Ronon, even, and soon they all heard of her marriage to Kanaan, from another Athosian, not Teyla herself. Their slow action had cost them her friendship but for the sake of her people.
It was such a loss for the expedition. They learned how they had underestimated her. It was a loss for Ronon, who day by day came to realise he should have told her every day, in action, in word, any small gesture he loved her, that he wanted to know her.
Ronon didn't usually dwell on what if? What if? For all his life it would break his heart. But the aching loneliness ate away at him now more than ever, these long months and years of her leaving, losing what he had found, but failed to express to her, to appreciate...
0o0
Ronon awoke with a start. He opened his eyes and looked around warily, subtly. It just wasn't... possible. He saw the same pale faces his eyes had swept over on his entrance into this dim room. The barman has gotten somewhere with that stain, which had been slowly shrinking under his hand.
"The storm has passed," the bartender said quietly, looking up. "Sometimes, we stand at a crossroads, and life can go two ways."
Ronon stared into his cup. Accepting strange events, the twists and turns the path of life could throw you was something he must do. Sometimes you don't have time to question, or don't like the answers anyway, or, at least the way they were delivered from Rodney. He'd seen many strange things in his short life, and this was up there. But still the barman rubbed away at that stain.
"The passage of time when you are in sleep seems like nothing." The barman commented.
Ronon thought about the entire future laid out. One path of the crossroads.
"Would she be happy?" he asked aloud.
The barman looked a bit surprised, possibly at the astuteness of such a question, at the disregard of such strange circumstances.
"You want to make her happy?" he said, stopping his cleaning momentarily. Ronon looked at him a while, waiting, before he realised it was rhetorical.
0o0
"Teyla, what is it?"
Teyla felt her oldest friend behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her to face him. She didn't resist, but didn't yield, simply allowing the movement.
"Kanaan, I hope no one has noticed but you." He nodded gently so she continued to speak quietly.
"I could not stay. I know, once it was best for our people." His heart lept futilely at the 'our.' "But the differences between us were too great. There was only Ronon..." She turned to look out into the forest they were standing on the edge of again.
"Teyla, we owe you everything for rescuing us, and to know you did it alone, it broke my heart. You did the right thing leaving. You always do."
Teyla smiled again out into the forest, and then it wavered.
"Kanaan, I must make the right choices to be fit as leader. But... have you ever wanted something so badly, but to confess it would mean you lose everything?"
Teyla knew that if she had approached Ronon, and he had rejected her, she simply couldn't bear to live in Atlantis. To leave suddenly and unexplained may cost the people of New Athos their alliance- and there were no secrets among her people. So much risk, so many feelings. If only he had understood enough to know he must make the first move... She closed her eyes and bowed her head.
"I know too well." Kanaan said quietly.