Title: Behind the Mask
Author: Kazavid
Chapter: 7 / 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 7

Almost three quarters of an hour later, Sheppard watched Ronon come strolling back into camp, alone. Sheppard frowned, where was Hunter, surely Ronon hadn't... no, he wouldn't...would he?

"Where's Hunter?" Sheppard decided to ask him.

"I have no idea." Ronon replied, moving over to pick his coat up and pull it on.

"You chased after him." Sheppard, dared to mention the incident.

"Did I?"

Ronon was being very perverse, Sheppard thought. What the hell had gone on, he wanted to know.

"Did you catch him?" Sheppard, was not about to let this go.

Ronon turned around to face Sheppard, he gave him a hard glaring stare, then he focused on a movement on the edge of the camp.

"Why don't you ask him yourself." Ronon said, seeing Lyssa entering the camp.

Everyone turned at this statement, McKay, who was drinking something at that precise moment, suddenly started choking at the sight of Lyssa. Teyla quickly started to pat him on the back, trying to get him to breath.

Sheppard stood there, mouth agape, in total shock.

All eyes were focused on Lyssa, and it made her feel very uncomfortable. This was the first time any of them had actually seen her face.

'Damn' Sheppard thought, so this is what's been hiding under that 'god forsaken mask'. Sean hadn't mentioned anything about Hunter being a woman. The only thing he had said was that Ronon and Hunter had some kind of history together. And seeing what Hunter really looked like, Sheppard could bet what kind of history that was.

Lyssa, feeling self conscious, ran her fingers through her short, blonde hair, trying to comb her hair back. It felt nice to have the wind on her face, but she was feeling a little vulnerable at the moment, everyone's eyes on her. The silence in the camp was deafening, no one seemed to know what to say. All eyes were focused on Lyssa. She glanced around, looking for Sean, she needed to see a friendly face right now, but he was nowhere in sight.

"Hi." Sheppard said, suddenly standing at her side.

Lyssa jumped, she hadn't heard him approach. Sheppard was standing there smiling at her, acting like they'd never met. This was one of the reasons she wore the mask. Once men found out that you were female they often treated you differently. Just like Sheppard was starting to do right now.

"Where's Sean?" she asked, Sheppard.

"Oh,he went to scout around, to see if he could locate any more symbols, he said he was sure there should be one in this area."

"I'd better get my things then, he'll probably be back soon." she said and moved towards her gear.

"Are you alright?" Sheppard asked, quietly.

She was just about to answer when she noticed Ronon, all geared up, leave the camp.

The way he was acting, you'd think she'd been the one, who had done something to him, when, in fact, it was the other way around. Ronon had never once, listened to her side of the story. According to him, he had seen with his own eyes, so anything she had to say was irrelevant.

"Hunter?" Sheppard's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"What?" she had forgotten what Sheppard had been asking her.

"Is everything alright." he noticed her watching Ronon.

"I'm fine." she told him, "and you can call me Lyssa, people only call me Hunter when I'm wearing the mask." she added. She moved over to pick up her things.

Sean finally came back to camp, he'd found the next symbol, and the way was clear of booby traps. So they headed out, Lyssa became aware of Ronon on the outer fringes of the area, she just hoped he stayed there.

For over an hour everything was fine, the path they were walking was pretty clear of foliage, so they could walk without fighting for every step. They didn't encounter any booby traps and McKay wasn't whining about anything.

That was, until Lyssa grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him backwards, out of the way of a ferocious looking, cat like animal. It pounced from the foliage right in front of them, just missing McKay. Both of them stumbled backwards, moving out of the way of the creature.

Then they heard it, that tell tale click of a mine being stepped on and primed to explode. Both Lyssa and McKay froze at the sound.

"No, no, no..." McKay started, "Not again, I can't take any more of this." he started to whine.

"McKay, it's alright, your fine..." Lyssa tried to tell him.

"What do you mean I'm fine? Did you not just hear that sound, I can't take any more of these, bloody, booby traps." He shouted at her.

"McKay, your alright. It's not you. Go and tell Sean I need him over here, now."

Finally realising what she was telling him McKay glanced down at her feet, but he couldn't see anything.

"Now, McKay." She prodded him.

"Yes, I'll...I'll go tell him." He said, quickly moving away from her.

A few seconds later Sean was racing over to her, followed by Sheppard.

"What is it?" Sean asked, not having waited for McKay to explain what had happened.

"I kinda stepped into a big mess of trouble." She said, trying to lighten the situation.

Sean was a little slow on the uptake, he didn't realise what she was talking about, until she pointed her finger down towards her feet.

Sean glanced down, and realising what she was talking about, he went very pale.

"I'm no good at these things, Lyssa, you know that." He started to breath quicker.

"Just do the same thing that you did to McKay." Sheppard, suggested.

"That's a choice, if it's the same kind of device, but this one didn't sound the same." Lyssa told Sheppard. But she wasn't even sure if it was a mine she had trodden on.

Sean, nervously, started to dig the ground from around her feet, it seemed to take ages, and Lyssa was getting very cramped standing in this still position, not being able to move her feet at all.

"Is it a mine?" She asked Sean, when he had exposed the device.

"Yes, it's a mine, but you know me I couldn't tell you what type it is, whether it could be disarmed or not. I have absolutely no idea."

Sheppard got down to have a look.

"If you don't know what your doing, if you touch something you shouldn't, you could set it off." she told him.

"I wasn't gonna touch a thing." Sheppard admitted.

"Ronon, you said Ronon taught you how to deactivate mines, he could..." Sean said, turning around to look for Ronon.

"Ronon taught you." Sheppard asked her.

Lyssa nodded.

"Fine, then we'll just get Ronon to deactivate it." Sheppard smiled. Glancing around, like Sean, he failed to locate him. He got on his radio.

"Ronon? Come on buddy, now is not the time to go all silent on me." Sheppard said into the radio.

"Ronon? Look, if you can hear me, we've got a problem here, and we could do with some help, like yesterday." Sheppard glanced around again hoping to see Ronon heading towards them, but no such luck. Sheppard just hoped that Ronon hadn't gotten into trouble like Lyssa.