Chapter 10

Jennifer

Ronon looked down at the knife that she held in her outstretched hand then back up to her face. She wondered why he wasn't reaching for the knife and thought that maybe she had made a mistake in coming to see him.

"No, that is not mine." he told her looking back at the knife in her hand.

"Oh, well, I thought that since you had it on the mission and you have so many that it was yours. Whose is it so I can return it?" she asked bringing her hand back.

"No, it was mine, but I want you to keep it."

"So you are giving to me?"

"Under one condition. I want you to promise that whenever you go off world you take that knife with you."

She was tempted to try to make fun of her poor abilities on the mission with him and opened her mouth to say something she hoped would sound funny and witty. Then she saw the look that was on his face. She wasn't sure what it was she was seeing, as he was usually unreadable so she changed her mind. "I promise and I thank you."

Jennifer tucked the knife away into her pocket and took a deep breath. She had used the knife as an excuse to come and talk to Ronon and now was her chance. She had gone over and over in her head what she wanted to say to him. She knew what she wanted to ask him, but now here she stood in front of him and couldn't say a thing. Has he always been this tall she wondered?

"Ronon, I wanted to ask you something, and if I am stepping out of bounds just tell me. I wondered if…um…well that is…would you teach me how to use this knife?" she asked. She was mentally kicking herself and cursed herself for not coming out and asking what she really wanted the answer to.

"You used the knife on the mission and you seemed to know what to do then." he said.

"No, I mean I can take it with me but if I get in trouble other than holding this in my hand I am not going to know what to do."

"Well, then I can teach you some basics."

"Right, well, then when should we start?"

"Well, other than talking to the man in the brig I have very little to do tomorrow." Ronon told her.

"Okay, that works. My shift will be over in the early evening so how about we get started then."

"Right, see you then."

"Well, that should be it then so I'll let you go back to whatever I interrupted." Jennifer said as she turned to walk back to her quarters, still mentally calling herself all sorts of coward.

She tossed and turned most of the night. When she did actually sleep, she had dreams of running through a forest. She saw Ronon reaching out for her and yelling but she couldn't hear what he was telling her, and so many other jumbled images. When her alarm went off to tell her it was time to get up and get ready for work she felt worse than she had the night before. Tonight for sure when I see him for training I tell him everything, I can't do another night like this she told herself on her way to the infirmary.Jennifer went about her day doing her best to put aside the thoughts of what she would say when it came time to face Ronon. I

t was only about an hour or so after lunch that the call came over the radio that put all thoughts of her talk with Ronon out of her mind.

"All available medical staff to the gate room for a medical emergency."Jennifer jumped up and grabbed the pack that was always ready in case of just this kind of call, and raced to the gate room knowing that other members of her medical staff would be racing after her.

When Jennifer and her medical personnel got to the gate room her heart and stomach both dropped to her toes. Major Lorne and Col. Sheppard were helping with marines that looked to be in bad shape. Then her eyes were drawn to the very prone body of Ronon who looked as if he had walked through the gate and then just dropped.

"What happened?" Jennifer asked, needing to know what had happened to the men. Ronon hadn't said he was leaving on a mission today. She was examining Ronon as John started to tell her what happened.

"We went back to the planet to see if we could find the camp made by those men."

"Did they do this?" Jennifer asked, while taking in the wounds Ronon had received. He had been shot in the leg; he also had a number of cuts. He would need surgery and possibly a few stitches to some of the deeper wounds.

"No, we found them and followed them to the gate. We watched to see the address they dialed and we followed them. The group on that planet did this to us."

Ronon was the worst of the injured. One marine had been shot in the arm but it was just a flesh wound, one had fallen in the retreat and broken his ankle (to which he was going to get a lot of teasing from the other marines Jennifer had no doubt), yet another marine had a dislocated shoulder and even John had managed to get a knock to the back of the head. Jennifer knew that her team was more then capable to handle the less injured while she had Ronon taken into the OR for surgery.

The operation was a complete success, Ronon was going to be fine, and he was lucky. If the bullet had been just two inches to the left, it would have hit his femoral artery and if that had happened, he would have surely bled out. The other marines had all been taken care of. Stitches had been given along with a cast, a sling and painkillers. Jennifer went around, checked in on everyone, and looked at their charts. She wanted to have a chance to talk more with the marines who had been on the mission but knew that they would be busy and she would have to wait.

As much as she would have liked to spend the rest of her day in the room with Ronon watching the steady rise and fall of his chest, and watching the heart monitor with its rhythmic motions showing that his heart was beating at a good restful pace; she knew it would be impossible. So instead, she went through her day desperately trying to keep herself busy hoping that the day would go by faster. She found herself walking past his bed a lot more than was necessary but couldn't make herself stop.

Finally, when her shift was over she went to see Ronon. When she got to his room, she saw that Teyla, the baby and John were all there to see their now awake friend.

"Hello how are you feeling?" Jennifer asked, looking over his stats.

"I have been worse." Ronon told her.

"Well, you look like hell big guy." John joked. "You are lucky that we were close enough to the gate that the Doc here could patch you up."

"Sorry to cut this short but Ronon needs his rest now. You can come back and see him later." Jennifer said as an excuse to have some alone time with Ronon.

"Yeah, okay, you get better okay, man." John told him as he headed for the door.

"We will see you tomorrow Ronon. Take it easy." Teyla said as she too made her way to the door.

Even the baby gurgled as they left. Jennifer watched as they headed out of the infirmary. She also noticed John's arm. It was wrapped around Teyla's shoulder before they turned the corner where she could no longer see them. She was going to have to remember to ask Teyla about her relationship with John later, but for now she turned her mind and face to the big Satedan on the bed beside her.

TBC

Author's Note at least I didn't stop before you knew that Ronon was going to be okay and remember if you kill me you wont know how it ends.