We're taking a bit of a jump through time here. This takes place in season three and is a tag for the Return.
She had hated leaving Atlantis. It had hurt more than she had anticipated. Upon returning to her home in Wisconsin, Jen Keller found herself depressed and withdrawn. Who'd have thought that an alien city she couldn't wait to get away from could have affected her this much?
More than anything, she was lonely. She missed the people she had worked with on Atlantis, especially Dr. Beckett. She had been able to talk with him about anything and now she had lost that. She couldn't even talk to her dad the way she used to. The Atlantis mission was classified, and it wasn't like her dad would believe her anyway. No, the adventure was over now. The Lanteans had taken their city back and the humans of earth were no longer welcome.
And then it had come- the glorious, marvelous call from the Air Force. The Lanteans had been killed by the Asuran Replicators, who in turn had been destroyed by Colonel Sheppard and his team. The Atlantis team was returning to the city, and they wanted to know if she was interested in rejoining the team.
"Are you kidding?" Jen asked. "Of course I want to go back!"
So she packed up her bags, kissed her dad goodbye and jumped on the first flight to Colorado. Upon arriving at Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Jen joined about thirty other staff members and boarded a puddle jumper, flew threw the gate and within a half hour found herself back in the wonderfully terrifying city of Atlantis. Why had she been so desperate to come back again?
She felt better about her decision to return upon entering the infirmary. This was her space; where she felt most comfortable and that would never change.
"Dr. Keller!" Dr. Beckett cried when he saw her. "Welcome back lass."
"Hi Dr. Beckett," she said, giving him a hug. "I heard that you went on a bit of an adventure."
"Aye," Dr. Beckett sighed. "And between you and me- never again. I think I've had enough adventuring to last me a life time."
"You always say that after an adventure," Jen teased.
"This time I mean it," Beckett said, winking as he left her to her work.
The next few days passed without incident and Jen felt herself falling back into her regular routine of patching up the SGA teams after their 'routine missions that got out of hand'. Still, she didn't feel completely at home until a familiar alien ducked into the infirmary.
"Another sparring accident?" Jen asked, leaving her desk and coming up behind Ronon. He jumped and whirled around to face her and Jen instinctively took a step back. He was a big, scary, alien warrior after all.
"You came back?" he blurted.
"You're not hurt," Jen replied, looking him over and not seeing blood anywhere.
"Oh, no," he agreed. "I was just making the rounds- to see who came back. You came back."
Jen closed her mouth and nodded grimly. Really, after all of this, she had hoped that someone would realize how much the city had come to mean to her. "Don't sound so surprised," she finally told Ronon. "I never left when the option presented itself."
"Yeah," he agreed. "But coming back is a lot more difficult than leaving." He nodded to her. "I'll see you around," he added before moving around her to leave the infirmary.
"I can't wait for your next injury," Keller muttered. She heard him laugh as he made as way down the hall and she sighed. Just another day in the ancient city of Atlantis.
