It was 6:00 the next evening.
Ronan stood in Rowan's makeshift workout room far out on the East Pier. He had to admit he was impressed by the set up she had. There was more than enough of the basics he would need to assess her abilities. After tonight, he would decide whether to conduct her training with his current group of scientists and/or marines or keep going solo.
A moment later, Rowan herself walked in, with Sheppard trailing. Ronan raised his eyebrow at that, but let it go. He couldn't really blame his friend, he'd do the same thing.
[JOHN. GO. AWAY.] Rowan signed.
[Again, no! I'm not going to say or do anything ok? I just want to make sure you're OK. Let me do this?] he signed back.
[This is embarrassing enough John, I don't need you here. I'm sure I'll be OK.]
[I know that. Just humor me please? Pretty please? I'll sit in the corner. I'll not say a peep. Promise!] John signed to her.
Rowan let a breath out through her nose and made a small nod of her head, rolling her eyes at her brother's antics. They were still walking on eggshells around each other, but the last few days had been more like their old relationship than ever before. She didn't want to do anything to upset the balance now, and if it made him feel better to be here, then so be it.
Ronan stepped up to them, [Come on, let's go. Sheppard- go sit over there- and stay out of the way.] He was very proud of himself for being able to sign it all. Rodney had showed him a computer program with video ASL that he had studied in his free time.
John smiled wide and happily skipped to go sit against the far wall.
Ronan took a moment to examine his pupil. He was glad to see she showed up without her piercings- all the chains and studs were gone. She was wearing a tight dark green racerback-T and loose fitting cargo pants. She had hacked off most of her hair again and it had bleached streaks running through it where it was long. He had never seen her bare arms before and took note of the colorful tattoos covering her arms and going up her shoulders, disappearing under the cotton. His mind started to wander thinking about what was under the shirt when he abruptly caught himself and focused. Come, on Ronan. This is Sheppard's sister. AND he's sitting right over there. Get a grip.
"OK, let's start with a basic hostile approach and see how you handle it." Ronan said.
Rowan took a defensive position and kept her eyes on the VERY tall Satedan. She cleared her mind and waited for him to come to her.
Ronan danced around a few seconds evaluating her posture and possible openings. He had to admit, she had a good stance and her posture looked right for the purposes.
He made up his mind deciding on a strategy, one that was tried and true against other Marines- exploiting the weaknesses in their defenses and previous training, and started on his approach... then he was looking up at the ceiling.
What the hell? He lifted his head up from the floor and Rowan was on the other side of the mat, standing lightly on her toes moving back and forth from foot to foot. She had a look of satisfaction on her face.
There was a small snort that came from the area the John was sitting.
Ronan picked himself up off from the floor and glared at his friend. "Shut-up Sheppard."
Okaaay. He was probably holding back, he said to himself. Because that did not just happen. He had yet to encounter someone from Earth who could defend themselves against his own Satedan training when they first arrived on base. He started to think through his arsenal of holds and attack moves before deciding on one that should result with HER on the mat. He started off with a direct approach then quickly juked to the left trying to trick her...then had his face on the mat. He lifted his head up once again and looked for his 'opponent' (she was no longer Sheppard's Little Sister)- she was back on the other side of the mat- the side she started on- again doing her light footed dance from toe to toe, her arms held lightly at her sides, fists up.
He stood back up with a little more force than last time and glared and Sheppard, "You could have warned me dude."
John did have the good manners to look sheepish, "I wasn't sure if she'd kept up her training in the last 10 years. I'd guess that she has. Yeah, I think she has. You might want to watch out for her Ronan" he yelled.
"My sister's pretty well equipped to take care of herself. Thought Id' warn you, you know, as a friend." he finished.
Ronan stared at him. "Thanks Sheppard. Really helpful."
In the next fifteen minutes, Ronan ended up on the mat two more times. He even started to break out into a sweat. Rowan didn't even have the good manners to do even that.
"OK! ENOUGH! You can obviously deflect a short quick attack. Let's try some actual sparring." He turned away mumbling something under his breath.
Rowan was having a ball. It was really rare than anyone could catch her unawares when it came to this sort of thing. She had always been hyper-aware of how people probably perceived her and worked hard to dispel those preconceptions though working harder than everyone else and proving them wrong every chance she got.
She started martial arts training when she was 10 years old and by her early 20s had studied under several masters of various forms and had quietly developed her own style over the last 15 years. She had a disadvantage in her deafness, but made up for it with the sensitivity of her other senses- in particular, her eyesight was more keen to pick up on the 'tells' of other people's bodies, projecting their intentions before their actions did. She was proud of her accomplishments and rarely had the chance to use them, so she was enjoying herself.
Ronan was a very good match for her skill level she knew- he just was having a bad night. He was surprised by her abilities and his mind was a jumbled mess, she could tell. She knew she would never have this advantage again, so she was trying to savor it. Once he studied her a bit more and re-evaluated her- he was PROBABLY going to be able to best her, because in the end- he was much bigger and stronger, and hearing... with plenty of skill to use those advantages.
She was still exceeding pleased with how this night was going though.
They had both taken a small break for water and were now standing close to each other getting ready for some hand to hand sparring, putting tape on their hands and what not.
[You're good, I didn't know. You tricked me.] He signed with a narrowing of his dark eyes.
She signed, [Not true. No chance to tell you. Understand?]
[Whatever.] (It was his favorite sign that Sheppard had taught him so far), [Hand to hand?], he signed shortly.
[Bring it.] she replied with a rare grin.
Ronan was REALLY starting to like this girl.
They attacked each other at the same time. Ronan went for a high grab, pushing his body into her space and using the force of his whole body to try and push her to the ground using his hand and arm against her shoulder. But she was too fast for him, she used his momentum and turned so that it pushed her further into his chest. She spun and shot her arm over her head and into his armpit making him lose his balancing point and stumble forward. She stumbled over his feet and turned away from him in her efforts to maintain her balance.
Ronan spun and recovered quickly, running toward her again. This time he was able to come up from behind her, and manage to get the advantage. She accepted the loss and stood up for another go.
She, in fact, wasn't able to best him again the rest of the session- but she more than held her own, even ending on a draw once or twice. They were both sweating by the time 8:00 came around.
Ronan's watched beep to remind him of the upcoming ASL lesson. [Stop now. Time ASL school], he signed with some regret.
Rowan looked disappointed as well. She hadn't had this much fun in a long time. But, she was exhausted from trying so hard to impress Ronan and remain standing, that she was more than ready for the break. So they agreed to meet with the others in the mess after they got cleaned up.
Ronan thought a lot about Sheppard's sister as he walked back to his quarters. He definitely liked her. He already knew that going in. But now, he respected her too.
He'd trained dozens of so called Special Forces, Navy Seals, all sorts of soldiers while on base and he'd never been surprised by any of them. Sure some of them had the skills to back up their words and attitudes, but more often than not, he was left unimpressed. Rowan Sheppard definitely surprised him.
He knew going in that she was a fighter, but he had no idea that she was able to fight on a level ALMOST on par with him. He forgot about her deafness totally. He couldn't believe that he had gone in thinking she was at a disadvantage and that he'd have to "modify" or make concessions for her. In close combat she would be fine. However, he did have some reservations about any sort of incoming attacks and just general awareness about her surroundings. Then again, most science geeks were totally oblivious to their surroundings...what was the difference? He'd just have to stick close by her. Or, someone would, anyway.
He had never met anyone like her. There wasn't anyone like her in the Pegasus Galaxy or from Earth. All the villages he had gone through, all the planets he bad been to, he'd never found anyone to be like her. And not just appearance either. True, tattooed people were pretty rare, and pierced people were rare too. But it was the combination of piercings, tattoos, and her incredibly defiant, was the only word he could think of, attitude, that made her stand apart. Here was someone completely willing to be themselves, and was at the same time, forced into this personality by her circumstances.
Sure, a lot of the Earth soldiers had the symbol of their military or their particular unit represented on their arm or chest, but Sheppard's sister's ink looked like art and it was all over her body. He was able to study some of the images as they grappled together. There was a meandering vine up her right arm, with a snake winding around it. On her other arm, near the shoulder she had a skull with roses where the sockets were. There were a lot of other images too, but he had been too busy trying to hold onto his positional advantage to take real notice. It was obvious she had them placed so that she could strategically cover them up, as he had no idea she had them at all. He wondered if it was OK to ask about them, about her tattoos.
That was another thing Ronan noticed, Sheppard's sister had been here for a few months now, yet nobody knew much about her. Was it because she couldn't talk? But she had John and Parrish there to help with that, and her tablet was working great. And she didn't have any problem talking to him and Sheppard's friends. He had seen her talking on a few occasions to Zalenka and some other computer geeks, but that was about it. He knew that she and Sheppard were meeting up and having their own brother sister re-bonding thing going on. He knew they got together most nights because he had seen them on his evening runs, usually they were walking around and signing to each other, more often laughing than not, or they'd be out on one of the piers drinking beer.
Both she and John were both intensely private people and neither of them had talked to anyone else about their relationship. After Sheppard had broken down, Rowan was around more, popping up on the edge of the gateroom when they gated back from a few missions, and he could see her just leaving the locker rooms when he'd go in, and Sheppard would be there. So presumably, she was "seeing him off" on a few missions too. They were slowly mending their relationship, just like he knew they would, and he was glad for it. For both of them.
He put his thoughts on hold as he washed up and got ready to meet his friends for the next ASL lesson, he didn't want to be late.