Lines: Parting Chapter 2 Six Weeks, a stargate: atlantis fanfic

Title: Lines: Parting – Chapter 2: Six Weeks

Author: Marianne H. Stillie

Categories: AU Alternate Scenes & an Episode Tag for The Return Parts 1 & 2; Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Rating: T

Pairing: Ronon & Elizabeth

Series: The Lines Series – Story #12

Season: Season 3

Sequel To: Lines: Reconciling, Blending, Hoping, Grieving, Merging

Summary: In the Pegasus Galaxy, Ronon and Teyla walk a fragile balance between hope and despair.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places for Stargate Atlantis are the property of MGM Worldwide Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Television and Acme Shark Cooper/Wright Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks are intended. Previously unrecognized characters, places and this story are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Archive: Please do not archive anywhere without the author's permission.

Lines: Parting

Chapter 2: Six Weeks

From the fields on New Athos where dozens of Athosians were weeding the rows of young seedlings, Teyla heard the Ring of the Ancestors activate then shut down. The new village had been built close enough to the ring so that travel and escape were equally convenient. She hoped the new arrival was Ronon. He had been gone since yesterday morning. She knew better than to worry about her little brother under normal circumstances. The past six weeks had not been normal.

Her people had quickly adapted to their new environment after they were forced to relocate by the returned Ancients. She had been surprised when Ronon asked to go with the Athosians. She was sure he would have preferred to go to Belsa where the largest concentration of Satedans had settled. Instead he had thrown himself into the long hours of heavy work that were needed to build the new settlement. When he was not involved in that purely physical labor, he went out with the hunting parties.

Each day that went by saw drastic changes in the Ronon Dex she had known during the past year. The easy laughter and warm smiles she was used to since he and Elizabeth had become lovers then mates were gone. His silences were long and heavy. Even their close friendship had suffered. He had regressed to the closed, emotionally detached man he was when she and John found him.

It was at night, when he tried to sleep away the exhaustion he carried over from the daylight that the true torments came through. The hatred of his enemies that consumed him manifested in his dreams and poured out in heavy vocalization each night. The name he called out to soothe his rage was always Elizabeth's. As much as she wanted to comfort him, she honored his privacy behind the curtained portion of her tent. Each morning when they began another day, she pretended she had heard nothing.

As the first segment of the moon's cycle went into its final night on the new home world, he announced that he would be leaving. He was going to the Genii to rejoin the fight against the Wraith. She had not been surprised. She wished she could go with him but her primary responsibilities were to her people, now more than ever. Their farewell at the ring had been brief and distant. She thought of him often during the next three weeks, wondering if he was safe.

Her answer had come when his Satedan friends, Bract Adair and Solen Sincha, and two Genii carried him through the ring on a stretcher, his leg and hip badly mangled from a raid on a Wraith base. Ronon had joined the Genii and brought with him a large contingent of Satedans, mostly former soldiers like himself who wanted to continue the fight they had been forced to abandon when their home world fell. Bract asked her to care for him. The Genii doctors had done all they could but they doubted that he would ever be able to function fully as the invincible warrior he had been for so many years.

The healing had gone well over the past ten days since his arrival. Fortunately, there had been no broken bones. The medical supplies Carson had left with her made a significant difference in mending the extensive muscle and skin damage and preventing any infection. Ronon's strong, healthy body had also helped. She was hopeful that with time and careful retraining his mobility would be restored.

When she saw him coming down the path from the ring she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed how heavily pronounced the limp was. His physical struggle to move down the dirt path tore at her heart. Whatever he had done while he was gone this time canceled all he had regained during his recovery.

XoX

Ronon had washed and changed clothes then lay on his bed gratefully. The pain in his left leg and hip was almost as bad as when he'd first been wounded. He knew he shouldn't have pushed so hard on the climb but he needed the challenge to prove that he could still scale the Satedan mountain he'd conquered so easily before. That he'd made it only a third of the way was frustrating.

The physical exertion was also a means to escape the loneliness with its growing despair. He shut his eyes, willing an image of Elizabeth to come to life in his mind. The visions of his mate had helped him survive the last time they were separated. He needed to hold on to her the way he had done then. He squeezed his eyes tighter until he visualized their house. The only furniture was an air mattress on the floor in front of the stone fireplace. The pleasant memory was of their first night together in their home. He let himself drift into the comforting moments, hearing her voice, seeing her smile, feeling her body close to his.

He had started to doze off when he heard movement in the tent. He stopped himself from reaching for one of his knives when he realized who was drawing aside the curtain. "I'm fine, Teyla," he mumbled gruffly.

The Athosian woman stood beside the bed, silently taking stock of her friend. She recognized the scrapes and bruises on his hands and arms from his off-world climbing trips before he was injured. "More mountain climbing, I see."

A monosyllabic grunt was his only answer. He kept his eyes closed attempting to bring back the picture of Elizabeth before he lost it. His hands were folded on his chest, his fingers slowly twisting the ring his mate had put on him that last morning in Atlantis. He waited impatiently for the sound of her departure.

Teyla stared at his folded hands. Ronon had always had a nervous habit of absently moving his fingers, usually when he was bored or impatient, thoughtful or annoyed. Since their exile from Atlantis, she had noticed that his old random habit had evolved into a pattern of twisting and turning the dreadlock ring he now wore on his left hand. She waited out his silence.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning," he said coldly.

"No, you are not!"

Opening his eyes he looked up at her. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or shout in response. He didn't care enough, so he did neither. "Why not?"

"I refuse to be the one to tell Elizabeth that you died on some unknown planet because you were too stubborn to believe that she would come back to you as she promised!"

Ronon's eyes squinted suspiciously. "How do you know she promised she would come back to me?"

Her anger suddenly deflated and she said tearfully, "Because John made the same promise to me. I know he will keep his promise, no matter how long it takes. You have to trust that Elizabeth will do the same. Getting yourself killed is not a good idea."

Teyla's words were like a blow to his pain-clouded mind, a reminder that he wasn't the only one to lose a lover and best friend. He stared at her pensively. "You miss him."

When she didn't respond, he carefully stood up and tenderly wrapped his arm across her shoulders. She fell into his brotherly embrace and began crying into his chest. His large hand rhythmically stroked up and down the back of her head in comfort.

Ronon patiently listened to her escalating tears but she didn't see his heavy silent ones. Elizabeth had made a promise to him with all her heart. It was about time he trusted her to keep it.