Title: Behind the Mask
Author: Kazavid
Chapter: 4 / 16
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ronon Dex, Other
Archiving: None
Warnings: Sexual content later chapters
Spoilers: None
Feedback: Yes
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis and its characters do not belong to me.
Summary: While searching for an Ancient Outpost, Ronon meets a part of his past he thought he had put behind him.

Chapter 4

"Stop! " Hunter shouted loudly, holding a hand up, turning to look at everyone. "No body move an inch, stay exactly where you are." Hunter told them.

McKay, who never seemed to listen to anyone but himself, was just about to move. Hunter threw a knife, that whizzed right by McKay's head, McKay froze with fright.

"I said, stay exactly where you are!" Hunter shouted at him.

McKay was just about to open his mouth to object to Hunters tone of voice, but seeing the intimidating stance , he quickly shut it and stood still. 'The next knife this guy threw, might not miss,' he thought.

"What's the matter." Sheppard asked, glancing around to see if he could see anything. This guy was as bad as Ronon when it came to hearing and seeing things, Sheppard thought.

"Someone's activated a booby trap..." Hunter said but never got to finish.

"What do you mean 'someone's activated a booby trap', how the hell do you know." McKay shouted,he was still peeved over the knife.

Hunter moved towards McKay and stopped right in front of him. McKay shut his mouth and kept quiet.

Hunter slowly moved around everyone, meticulously examining the area around them and under their feet. Sheppard was clear and moved away from the others, then it was Teyla, she was fine, Sean was also clear. That only left Mckay, as Ronon was still out of sight, Hunter had no idea where he was.

McKay was panicking again, he realised that he was the only one left, which he concluded, meant that he was the one who was standing on a booby trap. He was a dead man, he thought. McKay glanced down at the Neanderthal who was now lying at his feet. He just hoped the guy knew what he was doing.

Hunter was lying on the floor digging the earth from around the device, he needed to get access to it, see if he could disarm it. When he had removed enough dirt from around the device he examine it, Hunter, hung his head down, damn it. Kneeling up he turned and looked over at Sean.

Sean knew what Hunter was indicating, he turned to Sheppard "Hunter can't disarm the device." He told him.

"What's wrong." McKay shouted, realising that something else, other than him standing on a bomb, was wrong.

"Look I can't disarm the device..." Hunter tried to explain the options but McKay butt in before he had a chance to.

"Can't disarm it! Why can't you disarm it?" his voice was rising. "Surely it's a simple technique to..."

"Calm down McKay, it's not helping." Sheppard told him, he didn't want Rodney to accidentally move and blow himself up.

"Calm down! Calm down! I'd like to see you clam down, knowing your about to have your extremities and everything else blow off" He screamed.

"Quiet!" Hunter shouted, "Nobody is going to blow up. If you'd let me finish what I was going to say, you'd know there is another option here!"

"There is?" McKay asked, suspicion in his voice.

"Yes, there is."

Sean frowned at Hunter, he wasn't sure what Hunter was up to. He didn't know of any other way to get someone off a mine.

"So what is it." McKay said eager to move.

"You have to trust me." Hunter told him.

McKay seemed to ponder this, he didn't really know this guy, could he trust him, with his life, hell he couldn't even see the guys face, how was he supposed to trust him.

"McKay!" Sheppard shouted exasperated. It wasn't as if he had much choice, certain death, or a chance to live.

"Alright! Alright, I...trust you." He said, hoping that Hunter believed him.

"Right, I need everyone to stand back, out of the blast area." He said.

"Hunter, what are you doing." Sean finally asked.

Hunter walked over to where Sean and Sheppard where standing.

"What are you planning on doing." Sean asked.

"The blast from these things tends to be upwards and not outwards, so if I can get him off that thing fast enough, and out of the blast radius, we can survive."

"You ever done this before." Sheppard asked, he could see the look Sean was giving Hunter and knew this wasn't something they hadn't had much practice at.

"Yes." Hunter said half heartedly.

"How many times." Sheppard asked.

"Once." He admitted.

"Well, it must have worked, because your still here." Sheppard remarked.

Sheppard squinted his eyes. "How are you gonna get him off the device fast enough."

"Don't ask" Hunter said and turned and headed back to McKay.

"Right, McKay, I need you to close your eyes." Hunter said, he didn't want McKay moving an inch, which would be a possibility, if he saw Hunter running at him at top speed.

"What! What for?" He wanted to know.

"You said you'd trust me." Hunter warned him.

"Fine. Closing my eyes. Eyes closed." He snorted.

----------

Up on the incline Ronon stood looking down on them, having heard a lot of commotion and shouting he'd come to investigate. Everyone seemed to be okay, and nothing was amiss. But something was wrong, McKay was separated from the others. Ronon quickly got down to the group, but before he could reached them, he saw Hunter running towards McKay at a tremendous speed.

Hunter ran as fast as possible at McKay, he needed to tackle him hard and fast if they were to survive. Hunter hit McKay hard, grabbing him around the torso and letting the momentum carry them out of the blast radius. They managed to move quite a distance before the device exploded, but the blast sent them further and harder than Hunter had intended. They hit the ground with a bone jarring thud. Debris rained down on everyone.

Hunter rolled off McKay, to lie on the floor on his back, he took a few deep breaths,then turned his head to look at McKay.

"You alright?"

"I don't know, everything has gone quiet, I can't hear much."

"That's just the blast, it tends to shut things up and makes you hear the silence."

"Everyone alright?" Sheppard asked running over to them.

Sean reached Hunter and looked into the face mask, he wished that Hunter would take the damned thing off, so he could actually see if everything was alright, but he knew there was no chance of that.

"You okay." He asked quietly.

"Fine." Hunter replied, everything seemed to be working.

Hunter turned to look at McKay and saw Ronon standing there staring, swallowing a lump that had lodged in his throat, Hunter didn't know how much more of this... . 'Damn it', it had only been a few hours... . He closed his eyes and turned back to look at Sean.

McKay was standing up being helped away from the scene of the explosion by Sheppard and Ronon, leaving just Sean and Hunter alone.

"Come on lets get you up." Sean said pulling Hunter up by the arm.

Hunter stood up with Sean's help and immediately, the pain hit him, and hit him hard, it was concentrated on his back area, it felt like it was on fire.

"What's wrong." Sean asked hearing Hunter groan.

"I think I hurt my back." Hunter admitted. Taking a few steps, knees bending, Hunter sank to the ground, bending over as the pain radiated across his flesh.

Sheppard and Ronon turned to see what was going on, and saw Hunter falling down to the floor. They came over to see what was wrong.

Sean moved to examine Hunters back, pushing the jacket up he saw several shards of metal embedded in the flesh.

Sheppard and Ronon just caught sight of the bloodied skin and Sheppard quickly got the medic kit out of his pack, and handed it over to Sean.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Sheppard asked Sean.

"He'll be fine." Sean told him.

Sheppard was a little sceptical at this announcement, the guys back looked pretty cut up to him.

Ronon looked at Hunters back and frowned, something kept niggling at him about this guy, things didn't seem to add up. But Ronon couldn't put his finger on what it was and it was frustrating the hell out of him.

Sean knew that this was going to hurt like hell, but it had to be done. He took hold of the first piece of metal sticking out of Hunters back, and slowly eased it from its position. He felt Hunters body tensing at the pain, heard the muffled cries, he wished there was another way of doing this, but there wasn't. Sheppard and Ronon stood there, watching, wincing as each piece of metal was pulled from the skin.

Sean pulled the last piece out and covered the wounds and bandaged it up. He gave Hunter what pain killers they had and helped him over to lie on the soft grass.

"So what happens now." Sheppard asked, looking down at Hunter.

"We'll be ready to go in about an hour." Sean said.

"Your sure, I mean Hunters wounds look pretty nasty." Sheppard said.

"An hour, we'll be ready to go. Hunter is a fast healer." Sean announced, leaving Sheppard in no doubt as to this being a fact.

"Fine, an hour." Sheppard agreed.