Author's Note: Thank you for being so patient with me! Here is the next Ronon chapter. It's a little short, but he's finally getting close!
Thanks, as always, for the reviews; they make me smile (and occasionally cringe with apology. LOL)!
------------
Lose It All: Chapter Four
------------
Ronon's search for Teyla had lost any sense of order; he simply trusted her and his instincts to lead him to the right planet. He was never quite right with that, always seeming to be one step off, a couple of days behind her. He wondered briefly if she was running away from something; maybe she was being followed and didn't want to lead a spy home? He'd had little contact with Atlantis; but from that tiny bit he knew that for whatever reason, she would not return to the city, and that everyone there still thought her dead. Well, he'd prove them wrong!
After several weeks of near-misses, Tonon finally got a lead. He talked to everyone that he met, describing Teyla perfectly in hopes of finding anyone that had seen her. He stopped in the local tavern to listen; if there was any bit of gossip involving her, he knew that the tavern was the best place to hear it. He sat hunched over a mug of beer, not really noticing the conversation going on near him about a man who had recently died... until they mentioned her.
Ronon sat bolt upright, staring at both the bartender and his half-drunk patrons.
"What woman?' he asked the group that he had been listening to; they had been describing Teyla. "When was she here?"
"She was here the day that Dunlaf died," one of the men slurred. "She was a pretty one; red hair, dark eyes, nice-" Ronon didn't bother to let him finish his statement.
"Where did she go?"
"I don't know; she left last week." Ronon cocked an eyebrow in his classic "I don't believe you" manner, fingering his gun under the bar and debating using it as further means of "persuasion". But the guys seemed… genuine… at least as much as anyone could be when slobbering drunk.
"I dunno!" he insisted. "Just leave me 'lone…"
"I saw her leave," a surprisingly coherent voice said from behind him. He turned and saw dark haired, skinny barmaid watching him carefully, worn hands on her hips.
"Do you remember the gate address?" he asked urgently. The girl flipped her curly hair behind her back.
"And what makes her so important to you that you'd go leaping into the unknown after her?"
"I need to find her."
"Why?" she asked. "That girl was runnin' away from something; and if it was you then you can shoot me with your fancy gun before I tell you." Ronon was taken aback by her boldness, and her apparent protectiveness of Teyla, a girl who she didn't know.
"She's my friend," he said. "she was kidnapped a few weeks ago. I just want to bring her home." The girl looked at him weirdly, then glanced around to make sure that no one was paying attention.
"Come with me," she said. Ronon followed her out of the door, very suspicious; but as always willing to risk it all if he could just find Teyla. But his fears seemed unfounded, at least for the moment. She took him to the far side of a nearly empty courtyard, then turned to face him.
"Why are you looking for her?"
"I already told you that; why are you protecting her?" The woman was quiet for a minute, and he could tell that her mind was working like lightening; he wondered if she was trying to decided if she could trust him with the truth, or if she was making up an elaborate lie.
"The man that everyone keeps taking about," she said finally, "the one who died? He was not the only man to die that day."
"What does that have to do with-"
"That other man was attacking me, in this very spot. He brought me here---people saw him drag me here---and no one did anything about it. But that girl you're looking for, she was running away, from whatever it was; and she saw what he was doing to me, and she killed him. She risked her life, her safety, being discovered, any and all punishment, to save MY life… or at the very least my honor. But because of that, I am going to protect her life in return." Ronon's face softened a little.
"I'm sure she's grateful," he said.
"I'm sure she wouldn't be if she found out that I told you what happened; she told me not to tell anyone." Ronon digested that bit of information for a minute, and the woman didn't move, but watched him with guarded, calculating eyes. He couldn't quite tell her reasoning for revealing Teyla's secret to him, if she had begged her not to; but the woman had seemed very sincere.
"Then why did you tell me?" he asked finally, his voice soft. The girl took a step closer to him and looked up into his face, lowering her eyes.
"Because whatever insanity has come over me, I believe that you're telling the truth," she said. "And I figure if I'm wrong, she'll kill you too."
------------
A/N: Thank you all for being patient with me as I finished this chapter up. And since you've all been so lovely and patient, you get another chapter today, too ;).
