Chapter 8
"How are you feeling today young man? How about we go for a little walk?" Jen asked the boy in a cheery voice. She hated that she still had to refer to him as 'the boy,' but his unwillingness to speak was beginning to become a big issue and was really worrying both her and Ronon.
Dr. Barker, Atlantis's new resident psychologist, had gone over all the security tapes from the boy's room and suggested that his silence was probably due to some major traumatic event in his life, possibly his accident or even events leading up to his accident—which were still unknown—and apparently the boy could begin speaking again very quickly once he took the first step and said something.
Medically speaking the boy was fine. He had suffered virtually zero muscle deterioration, and he was already walking without aid and was suffering no residual pain from any of his injuries only a week after waking up from his coma.
Jennifer smiled down at the young at the boy as he gave an enthusiastic nod. "What about we get you into some clothes then?" Jen said while holding up a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans that she had gotten the Daedalus to bring back from Earth for him, as well as some trainers that someone had thought to get.
Jen was leading the boy out of the door ten minutes later, but he stopped in the doorway and peered at her through nervous eyes. When he opened his mouth Jen knelt down to his level waiting to see if he would speak, "R...R...Ron...Ronon," he managed to say.
"Ronon? Do you want him?" Jen asked trying to keep a lid on her enthusiasm.
"Not go. Want Ronon too." He said his voice stronger now.
"Ok, you go sit on your bed for a minute. I'll get Ronon," Jen said.
Once outside the boy's room, Jen reached for her radio, "Control room this is Dr. Keller. Come in, please."
"Doctor Keller, this is the control room. What can we do for you?" a vaguely familiar voice answered.
"Is Colonel Sheppard and his team still with Colonel Carter debriefing?"
"Yeah they are. Is there an emergency?"
"No!" she said hurriedly, "Could you patch me through to Colonel Carter please?"
"Yeah ok, hold on." The technician said.
Ronon was bored.
The mission had been boring and the debriefing was proving the same. There had been nothing but sand on the planet, but McKay's mysterious 'energy' reading had prompted them
to search further. After six hours of searching and finding nothing, Ronon had grown irritated and almost shot Rodney when he realised that this anomalous energy reading was actually coming from a ancient device he had with him in his backpack. On the long trek back to the jumper Rodney had been oddly silent, taking Sheppard's berating without so much as a complaint.
"So, you found absolutely nothing of value on this planet?" Colonel Carter asked, after Sheppard had explained the events of the mission to her.
"Not unless you count sand," quipped Sheppard.
Colonel Carter held up a hand to pause any other comments while she reached for her radio, "Go ahead."
"Understood. We're pretty much done here anyway. I'll send him over to you . . . Carter out."
Ending her conversation Sam turned back to the group, who were all looking at her expectantly.
"Ronon, Doctor Keller needs you in the infirmary. So could you make your way to her please." Sam hadn't even finished speaking when Ronon was leaving the room. Curiosity and worry rolled through him in alternating waves, as he made his way quickly to the infirmary.
It eased slightly when he got there and Jen could be seen sitting with the boy, who was now wearing earth clothes. Without knocking Ronon entered the room. "Is everything ok?" he asked.
Jen was about to answer when the boy jumped up and rushed to Ronon and wrapped himself around Ronon's legs. Ronon tensed and stood for a moment looking uncomfortable, before he reached down and picked up the small boy. "Jen said we could go for a walk, but I wanted you there as well," the boy said now, sounding much more confident.
Ronon shot Jen a shocked glance before looking at the boy again. "Well, we could go for a walk, but it's not fair that you know our names and we don't know yours. Why don't you tell us, then we can go for a walk?"
"Ok. Finan Keltin. But, you can call me Finn." He said.
"So Finn, how old are you?" Jen asked carefully.
"I'm six but my momma always told me I was big for my age. She said she was proud of how tall and strong I am already . . ." Finn faltered, tears filled his eyes. "I miss my momma," he said quietly.
Ronon gently pulled him closer, and Jen stepped forward putting a comforting hand on Finn's shoulder. "How about you tell us what happened? About where your home and momma are?" Jen said quietly.
The three of them sat on the bed together; Jen and Ronon sat next to each other with their backs to the wall with Finn sat snuggled between them.
"I was out playing with my friends when the ring of the Ancestors came to life. Out of it came these flying things. I knew what they where straight away; they where the wraith. I ran home to my momma and father and we ran for the hideout. But we couldn't get there. The wraith where everywhere so we hid in the forest. The screams lasted all night, but by morning it was really quiet. So we went to the ring of ancestors, and father dialled the address of a place we have traded with . . . we were just about to walk through when the wraith appeared. Momma and father stood in front of me and they . . . fell . . . I shouted to them but they didn't answer me. So I ran. I ran through the ring. When I got to the new place the ground started shaking and the mountain fell on top of me."
By the time the boy had finished speaking tears were flowing freely down Jen's face. Finn looked at her, "Momma told me that one day the wraith would come, and she said that she and father would make sure I was safe, but that they might not be able to come with me. She said I would have to find a new Momma and Father."
"Finn, will you sit here for a little while and when we come back we can go for that walk, ok?" said Jen quietly
Finn nodded, and Ronon and Jennifer left the room. In Jen's office they met Dr. Mark Barker, who had been watching the entire conversation via a live feed. Jen was still struggling to pull herself together when Colonel Carter and Colonel Sheppard arrived.
Dr. Barker quickly briefed the Colonels on what had happened and then launched into his thoughts of it. "The boy- Finan seems to be coming to terms with what has happened remarkably quickly for a child so young.
"When you live with the knowledge the wraith could come at anytime you do not have time to waste with things like this. It's sad but true. You have to get over loss quickly or you'll be consumed by it. It's a thing that all of us as children have drummed into us at a very early age," Ronon stated as-matter-of-factly.
"Well, we need to find out where his world is and establish if there any survivors left," John said and Carter nodded.
"Can you find out the gate address for his home world?" Sam asked Jen and Ronon.
They nodded and Jen said, "We promised to take him for a walk around the city, so we'll ask after that."
When everyone had left the room but Ronon and Jennifer, Ronon turned to her. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. It's just this poor boy saw his parents killed right in front of him, and everyone he ever knew may be dead. He is so alone," she said.
"Then he's in the best place, trust me." He said. Jen looked into Ronon's eyes and found that she did, trust him, completely.
"I'm glad you're here because you're the best qualified to understand what he's going through. Now shall we go and take him for that walk?"
Ronon nodded and led the way out of the room.
Finan was excited for his walk around the city of Atlantis and was eager to get out of the door of his room. Ronon stopped him with a hand on his shoulder though, before he got out of the door. Turning Finn around he knelt down to the boys level, "Now out there is a city full of people, they are like me and Jen, they won't hurt you so don't worry ok? We'll always be here to protect you."
"Ok," Finn nodded.
The walk was uneventful; Finn was very quiet at first, clutching Ronon and Jen's hands tightly and moving closer to them when passing people in corridors. But the further into their walk they got the more Finn came out of his shell and when they ran into Major Lorne in his team, Finn even managed not to hide between Ronon and Jen. Evan Lorne knelt down in front of Finn, "How you doing there, kiddo?" he asked.
Finn gave him a small smile and said, "I'm ok."
Jen knelt down and said to Finn, "This is Evan. He was one of the ones who helped rescue you, and the people behind him are his team, and they helped as well. Do you think you could say 'thank you' to them?"
Finn smiled and dutifully said, "Thank you Evan and his team for rescuing me!"
A chorus of 'your welcomes' and 'no problems' filled the corridor.
A little further into the walk Finn yanked on Jen and Ronon's hands and said, "I'm hungry!"
Ronon grinned and said, "Let's go see what we can do about that?" and led the way to the mess hall.
When they arrived the mess hall was about half full with the dinner rush. But Finn did not seem bothered when he saw all the food lined up.
Jen and Ronon helped Finn gather what he wanted to eat as well as filling their own trays. When food had been gathered they headed to a table by the window so Finn could see the view. Finn chatted all the way through their meal asking all sorts of questions telling them about what his home had been like. In a lull in conversation Jen decided to ask if Finn knew the address of his home world. When Finn nodded Jen borrowed a tablet computer from a nearby group of scientists and asked him to show her. With the address secured, she gave the tablet back to the scientist and told him to get it Sheppard straight away.
Ronon carried an exhausted Finn back to the infirmary and got him into bed. As he and Jennifer said goodnight to Finn, he asked, "Can I stay here forever with you?"
To which Jen answered, unsure."We'll see."
When Finn was fast asleep, Ronon walked Jen back to her quarters. When they reached Jen's door she smiled at him and said, "Guess this is my stop. You know you really did good with
Finn today. I never knew you had it in you. You're not this scary caveman that McKay says you are."
"You did well too. See you tomorrow," said Ronon leaning in and giving her a brief kiss on the lips, before walking away.
Jen stared after him a hand on her lips that were curved into a smile.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you liked, i really like this chapter! As always please leave a review they are greatly appreciated! Thanks also goes to Renisansz for betaing!
