Three months later:

Ashara peered down through the glass at the room below her. What she saw made her feel a lot of things. Anger, for the treatment he'd received. Hatred, for the Wraith and their cruelty. Pain, because she knew what he was going through. And most of all, sorrow. She watched as Ronon writhed and bucked on the table in the bare room below. He'd been strapped to the bed for nearly eight hours now and the effects of the Wraith's feeding on him were barely beginning to leave his body. He fought the effects with all of the anger he'd accumulated over the years and the bed shook and wobbled as he thrashed.

"How long?" Ashara asked as she watched.

"I don't know. Maybe a day, maybe more. There's so much of the enzyme in his body he can't even begin to process it yet. Once he's burned most of it off, I can't say for certain. " Jennifer looked down too, touching the computer tablet in her hand to read something on it. "He's strong though, if anyone can come through this it's him."

Ashara said nothing, just watched with sadness etched on her face. Keller knew that the Khorai woman was reliving the pain she'd been through as she watched Ronon's struggles. Not wanting to intrude in the former runner's thoughts, she patted Ashara on the shoulder and quietly left the room.

Ashara stood in the observation room all night watching him. She winced in pain as he fought against the thick straps that held him down and she reached out for him as he screamed in pain. She hated what the Wraith had done to him and felt a desperate need to hunt them down and kill every last one of them. But that wouldn't help him now. Only people that cared about him could keep him from giving up. And the people of the city were not going to let him succumb to the agony he was going through.

Sheppard had come into the room sometime in the night and stood quietly beside her, never saying a word. Eventually he left and she was alone again with her thoughts. She had remembered much of her time in the Wraith's clutches, none of it good and all of it painful. She fought with her own emotions as Ronon fought against the enzyme in the room below her.

Over the past few months they had become close friends. No one they knew of had had to survive the way they did and it eased the way between them. Ronon had shared a lot of his experiences with her, he said that talking to someone about it helped to keep the nightmares at bay. A lot of it she had gotten in the form of stories that he seemed proud of, the way he'd killed this Wraith, the way he'd trapped that one. Some of it had been whispered in the night, as they lay on her bed, safe in each other's presence like they hadn't been while they ran. Sometimes they fell asleep in the bed, waking in each other's arms, reveling in the dreamless sleep that came with the comfort. She hadn't ever told him anything of her time spent in the Wraith's clutches. She had long ago locked that away in the deepest part of her, hoping never to have to consider thinking of it again. Of course she told him about her time as a runner, but never before.

When Teyla and Sheppard has started to question their time together they had both denied anything romantic between them but Ashara had seen the look in his eyes some mornings when he woke beside her. She was beginning to feel the same way but she wouldn't chance loosing his friendship if she was mistaken about his intent. Chiding herself for being silly she continued on as if there were nothing but a deep friendship between them and it seemed to work for a while, until his eyes met hers again and that spark jolted her again into believing that by some slim chance he could find her attractive.

She snapped back to reality as the door to the room below slid open and Jennifer stepped inside the room. She carefully made her way to the bed where Ronon now lay quiet, pale and broken looking. He made no move towards her so she checked the straps and injected him with something that would no doubt make him feel better. The needle piercing his flesh made his eyes snap open and Jennifer jumped a little before he turned his gaze towards her. The pain on his face made Ashara's heart ache and she desperately wanted to do something, anything to help Ronon feel better. But that was Jennifer's job.

Keller mopped at Ronon's sweating brow and talked softly to him as she checked his vital signs and tried to reassure him. He was through the worst parts of the withdrawal but there was still more to come, just not as painful. She tried to explain to him what was happening but he wouldn't listen as he shut everything out and lay like the dead on the table. Eventually she left and he was alone again. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around the room. Finding no one, he let his defenses down and the tears poured from his eyes as he sobbed in pain.

When the door opened again it was Sheppard that stood there, his face carefully blank as he waited for Ronon to compose himself as best he could. When the man on the table looked over at him, only then did he come the rest of the way into the room. Sheppard did all the talking and Ronon listened, however uncaringly, as he fought against the enzyme in his system. Sweat poured off his body as Sheppard told him about how Tyre had sacrificed himself so that they would escape.

"Yeah, well he was a traitor." Ronon spat the words out at his commander and Sheppard looked critically at him, wondering if it was the brainwashing talking or some left over feeling from before.

"No, he was a good friend. We all are. You're gonna realize that pretty soon," Sheppard said as he turned his back on Ronon and left the room as the Satedan screamed after him.

Ashara kept staring down at Ronon as he thrashed and succumbed to more convulsions brought on by his withdrawal. It was getting harder and harder to watch it and not explode into a rage that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to come out of. What had been done to Ronon was worse than her own treatment could ever have been.

The door to the upper observation room hissed open behind her and Sheppard walked in to stand beside her. He watched his friend and comrade below in the throes of the drugs and he gripped the railing in front of him with white knuckles. "He's stronger than I gave him credit for. He'll make it through this."

Ashara couldn't tell if his words were to comfort her or for himself. "It's getting worse."

Sheppard nodded and glanced over at her, "Yes it is, and Keller says it'll be even worse than this before it's over. You've been here for a long time. Why don't you go lay down for a while? I'll watch him."

She stared back at him and suddenly felt the exhaustion he obviously saw. She hadn't slept in several days. She'd been returning from a hunt when Kanaan came through the gate to tell her about Ronon. She hadn't even known that he'd been taken because she had been off world for close to a week. The last planet she'd been on had very little natural shelter and she was going to sleep out in the open when a violent storm rolled through and denied her that option. She had been too far from the gate to get to it before the storm broke so she rode it out and told herself that she'd sleep when she got back to New Athos. But Kanaan's arrival had stopped that from happening and she certainly wasn't going to sleep while Ronon was like this.

Sheppard made a shooing motion with his hands at her, "Go on. I'll notify you if anything changes."