I don't own Stargate Atlantis or its characters.

Sorry the last chapter was so short! And sorry it took me so long to finish this. I get distracted easily :D

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Chapter 10

"Dr. Keller, this is Teyla," a voice sounded over the radio, interrupting the silent group surrounding Ronon's bed.

"Teyla, go ahead."

"Dr. Keller, I need you to start patching up Ronon. Do whatever you would be doing if he were alive."

Everyone turned and looked at Jennifer. Sheppard stood up slowly, confused, and Mr. Woolsey just stared at her in shock. McKay took a second, then realization slowly dawned on his face. "Jennifer, do it. She knows what she's doing."

Sheppard spoke for the first time since they'd reached Atlantis. "McKay, what's going on?"

"If I'm right, Ronon's going to be alive soon, and he'll be needing some serious medical work. Please, Jennifer, just do it." Everyone hesitated for a second, but after a few minutes the Doctor in Jennifer kicked in and she started calling out orders. Marie cleared the others away from the bed, and followed orders. More blood, sutures, soon Dr. Keller was busily stitching up his wounds. This is going to take hours, she thought glumly. She still wasn't sure why she was doing this, but Rodney seemed confident now, so she drew strength from that confidence.

After a few minutes Teyla came running in, quickly followed by Todd. Woolsey noticed that he was not handcuffed and started to say something, but stopped as he realized what was going on. Ronon had died once before, and this was how he was brought back.

"How long has he been dead," Todd hissed in his disturbing voice.

Sheppard quickly replied, "Twenty minutes, but the doctor's still got a lot of work to do." Without hesitation, Todd stepped over to the bed, scaring away Marie and the other nurses. Dr. Keller stayed where she was, ignoring him as she continued to work. He looked at Teyla once, then put his hand on the Runner's chest.

xxxxx

Two Days Later

Ronon slowly opened his eyes. There was something clouding his mind, he wasn't sure what. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was Teyla, then nothing. What was going on? Once his vision cleared he could see that he was in an isolation room in Atlantis, hooked up to half a dozen different IV's. He wanted to move, but he didn't think he could. He felt so weak. Then he felt something in his hand and looked down towards it. Seeing another hand, he followed it up the arm and smiled when he found Amelia's face looking at him. She looked so tired, but a smile grew across her face when she saw he was awake. "You've been asleep for two days."

"What happened? Sheppard and McKay, what happened to them? Are they dead?"

Amelia shook her head. "No, they are alive. Teyla, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. McKay, everyone is alive." Ronon took a second to let it soak in. His family was still alive and he smiled.

"How did Teyla get there?" he asked wearily. At that moment the door slid open and Dr. Keller entered, followed quickly by Sheppard and McKay.

"You two may only stay here for a few minutes, and no making him angry, ok? I don't need those stitches ripping out." Ronon had always thought it was funny when she used her doctor voice. He looked at Amelia again and wanted to touch her, to pull her tight in a hug, but the only strength he could muster was to squeeze her hand. She looked at him and smiled. "And you, Amelia, promised to get some sleep today," Keller continued.

His earlier question came back to his mind and he asked again, "How did Teyla get there? Is she alright?" He looked around, wondering why she wasn't with McKay and Sheppard.

"She's fine. Once we found out where you were, it was decided that it was too risky to try to extract you forcefully. So we, well, Jennifer Amelia and Cadman got together some jewelry and we tried to buy you back. That Adal guy said he'd take it if Teyla gave him one last fight. He forgot to mention the whole beating the crap out of you if you don't kill your opponent thing. Anyway, Teyla agreed, and here we all are." Sheppard said cheerily.

McKay groaned. "Well, you DID die." Ronon raised an eyebrow. "Yup, you were dead for about 20 minutes, but then Teyla convinced Todd to help us out. Second time you've been brought back by a Wraith, isn't it?" Ronon nodded and felt his eyes drifting closed as Dr. Keller was injecting something into an IV.

"Alright, everyone out. He needs more sleep."

xxxxx

Two Weeks Later

Ronon stood in front of the mirror, looking at his scars. They were healing nicely, thanks to Dr. Keller, but they were still red and ugly. She had told him that they would probably never go away completely. Amelia walked up behind him and reached gingerly towards his back. "Does it still hurt?" Ronon turned toward her and drew his hand across his chest, the Satedan sign for, "It's not so bad." He smiled down at her and drew her closer to him.

"It's not as bad as it looks."

Amelia smiled back at him. "It's worse than it looks, I'm sure. But I understand…football, red meat." Ronon raised his eyebrows, confused. "Earth expression…ya know, manliness? Nevermind."

Ronon chuckled then sighed as he started towards the door. "Going to see Teyla?" Amelia asked quietly.

"Yes." Ronon had been dreading this. Teyla had been avoiding him since their return. Apparently he had offended her when he had insisted that he win the fight. She had thought that she would have received the same punishment for disobeying the crowd that he had, and apparently she was offended that he thought she was too weak to take it. He didn't want to tell her the truth, but Sheppard had made it very clear that he didn't want any coolness between his team members. "Either fix whatever it is between the two of you, or I've got to switch you to SG-2. Please, Ronon, just fix it," Sheppard had said early this morning. Ronon had put it off all day, but it had to be done eventually. He wasn't sure how she'd react. He smiled at Amelia as he left her room, heading down the hall towards Teyla's quarters.

He got there too quickly, and grimaced as he passed his hand over the door chime. A few seconds later, Teyla opened the door holding Torren. Her face showed some surprise when she saw that it was him, then she shifted Torren in her arms uncomfortably. "Yes?"

Ronon folded his arms across his chest. "Look, Teyla, you know I'm not good with words. If I offended you in any way, I'm sorry. Please tell me how to fix this…" Ronon still hoped he could get out of this without telling her.

"I'm fine, Ronon," she spoke coldly and stepped back to close the door. Before she could, he dodged inside and was relieved that Kanaan wasn't in the room.

"Tell me what's wrong."

Teyla walked over to the crib and placed Torren in it gently. She then whirled around with an angry look in her eye. "What is wrong? Ronon! Do you think I am so weak that I would not gladly take those lashings for you? You were near death, Ronon! You DID die! Are you so selfish that you would have all of your friends, that you would have Amelia, lose you for the sake of sparing me a few moments of pain?! We almost lost you, Ronon, and I could have stopped it. You had no right to make that decision for me." Her eyes were smoldering with anger, and Ronon almost wanted to run. This little woman was the fiercest creature he'd ever met.

He sighed and looked at his feet. "Teyla…I didn't want to tell you, but I value your friendship a great deal." He hesitated for a second and she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright, I would have let you take the lashings for me, and I would have been grateful. But…Teyla, the punishment for men and women was different. I didn't do it for you alone, I did it for Kanaan as well." He looked up and could see that Teyla understood, but didn't want to.

"Ronon, what exactly was the punishment for women?" Teyla turned white, and she didn't look like she wanted to hear the answer.

"Teyla…" he said quietly, and stopped talking. Half a second later she had her arms around him in a fierce hug.

"Ronon, I'm sorry. I should…I should have spoken to you before now. I should have known that you do not think I am weak." She buried her head in his chest and whispered, "Thank you, Ronon."

He pulled away at that and held her face in his hands. "Teyla, do not thank me. Never speak of it again, understood?" She nodded, and he saw a look of concern in her eyes. "What is it?"

She pulled back and turned away from him. "Ronon, if I tell you something, do you promise to keep it from Sheppard and the rest of the people on the base?"

Ronon grunted an affirmative and waited.

"Ronon, I was the one who asked Todd to restore your life. But I didn't ask, I ordered him to." She turned and looked at him, and saw confusion all over his face. She sighed and continued. "Do you remember when Jennifer performed the surgery to alter my appearance to that of a Wraith?" Nod. "And you remember that Todd introduced me as his Queen?" Nod. "Ronon, it appears that he meant that quite literally. He accepted me as his queen, but I believe that he never meant for any of us to know. He is loyal to me." She looked worried, and stood waiting for his reply.

"So…wow," was all he managed to get out. She rolled her eyes, "Ronon, this is serious. I am unsure what I should do. He has been helping Dr. Keller with her retrovirus for the past weeks, and I do not know if the situation will change once his…Wraith DNA can be removed."

Ronon frowned and looked down. "I'm all for shooting him, but for some reason nobody here will let me. I guess the best thing is to wait and see. But I'm here if you need anything, Teyla. And if you ever want me to shoot him, I'll brave all Mr. Woolsey's frowns afterwards. Got it?" Teyla smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, Ronon. We shall wait and see."

xxxxx

"Seriously! I'd rather stab my foot with a fork! Ok, maybe not my foot, but you get the idea!" Rodney whined to the others gathered around the table. Rodney, Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Amelia and Jennifer were all crowded onto a table in the mess hall.

Teyla smiled at him. "Rodney, it will be a nice break from our usual missions. I'm sure this ceremony will not be as bad as you think it shall."

"Ya, and I hear the roasted bug thing is…well, I heard it was pretty bad, actually," Ronon said, holding a loaf of bread he was shoveling into his mouth. Rodney groaned.

"Oh come on, Rodney. At least you'll have a crazy story to come back and tell me." Jennifer gave him her most encouraging smile.

"Why can't you send Lorne and his team on this one?" Rodney directed his question to Sheppard, who rolled his eyes.

"Woolsey wants us to go. Says we should send our 'Top Team' out to participate. Guess it would mean a lot to the village."

"Besides, you'll get to have a match with me, that'll be fun, right?" Ronon grinned evilly at Rodney, who groaned and rolled his eyes.

Amelia sat with Ronon's hand in hers, watching his team. They continued on about their next mission, and she could see that they were a tight knit family. She was lucky to be allowed in. She closed her eyes and rested her head on Ronon's shoulder, listening to the team's banter with a contented smile on her face.

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And that's the end! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter! Sorry, I know I'm not the best writer that's been born, but I certainly enjoy writing, and would love to hear comments from anyone who reads this! Once again, thanks for the reviews I've gotten so far!

I should be writing another story again soon, but I would love suggestions for future stories! I also do not have a beta reader, so please excuse any grammatical errors and mis-spellings. :D