Lines: Questioning, a stargate: atlantis fanfic

Title: Lines: Questioning

Author: Marianne H. Stillie

Categories: Romance, Missing Scene for the beginning of "The Tower"

Rating: T

Pairing: Ronon/Elizabeth

Series: The Lines Series

Season: Season 2

Summary: For Elizabeth Weir and Ronon Dex, the old adage 'opposites attract' is proving true.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places for Stargate Atlantis are the property of MGM Worldwide Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Television and Acme Shark Cooper/Wright Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks are intended. Previously unrecognized characters, places and this story are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Archive: Please do not archive anywhere without the author's permission.

Lines: Questioning

Standing at her office door, Dr. Elizabeth Weir saw John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan enter the Gate room from the elevator. She looked at her watch, noting that they were twenty minutes early for the scheduled mission.

The two members of Atlantis' first line team stood to the side of the Stargate in a secluded spot carefully chosen so they could be alone in the huge room. It was one of the many changes in their behavior and routine Elizabeth had noticed over the months since John had returned from Earth. The close proximity of their bodies confirmed, again, that they were lovers now. The smiles and familiar intensity of their public conversations, which substituted for the tender touches that were confined to their private world, had appeared and grown deeper over time. Their feelings for each other were obvious, but not overt.

When Elizabeth had first noticed this development between two of her key personnel, she'd been deeply concerned. The risks they took and the grave decisions they had to make almost on a daily basis could create serious conflicts and mistakes with the complication of an intimate personal relationship. Now she truly understood the military regs against fraternization. There had already been events during this second year in the Pegasus Galaxy when she'd seriously considered discussing the matter with each of them. But she never did. Nothing had ever happened to make it necessary.

As they approached the beginning of their third year in Atlantis, she knew that could change in an instant. It was a natural need for their kind to seek companionship and ultimately pair off. Deep in her heart she hoped that she wouldn't have to exercise her authority as leader of the expedition to separate or penalize them. They were too small a group and very far away from home to have their personal lives restricted. John and Teyla were her very close friends. They deserved their love and happiness.

Her eyes caught the imposing movement on the other side of the upper level. She watched Ronon Dex as he casually leaned on the railing. The direction of his eyes was toward the Gate room floor below. Elizabeth knew she should look away from him but it was becoming harder for her to keep her thoughts about this man impersonal with each passing day.

Though from different galaxies, John and Teyla were the perfect match, warriors and leaders, equal and compatible in every way. The man her heart was increasingly drawn to was her counterpoint. Ronon was pure warrior, like no one she had ever encountered before. She was the ultimate leader, aloof and impartial, sending others out into this dangerous galaxy, possibly to their deaths. The differences between them were obvious.

She had asked herself more and more often if they could ever make a single unit, a whole. The answer had always been a profound 'no'. Their separate and disparate paths must remain parallel. The truth was painful to her lamenting heart.

It was enough that she was totally wrapped up in her job. Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy were very demanding masters. The safety and survival of over two hundred human lives was her primary concern. The attachments to John, Teyla, and yes, even Rodney, had become so intense, she knew what it would do to her if she lost one of them.

Allowing herself to become obsessed with a man was not on her agenda. She didn't need an even stronger emotional burden. Her heart tripped in an alarmed beat. That she had come to view love as a burden was sad and so debilitating to her soul, an odd aftermath of her ease in leaving Simon behind and closing off a part of herself after he had understandably moved on from her.

Yet, the risks of bringing someone new so deeply into her heart, where even the others couldn't go, had become an admixture of joy and pain. Her unsolicited and growing feelings for Ronon would mean having to reveal parts of herself she had denied for the demands of her work.

She had seen the subtle changes in him over the months since he'd first come to Atlantis. He had lived a violent life, as a soldier and because of the Wraith. There was an underlying ferocity in him that no amount of civilized society would ever tame. Despite the control and discipline he'd regained, he did nothing in half measures. The intensity of emotion that would come with loving Ronon Dex and having him love her was intimidating, and far beyond her life experience. He frightened her, yet she would trust him with her life. Most of all, she wasn't sure she could ever be a strong enough match for him.

The feelings were becoming more diverse and unpredictable, assailing her both at will, and unbidden. Sometimes, during the day hours when their lives crossed, her eyes would linger on him, sending long buried shivers of desire through her body. At night, there were the increasing dreams that caused her to wake suddenly, or haunted her with their vivid images in the daylight. The sexual implications she understood. It was the affectionate companionship and conversations she wished she could share with him when she was awake that had increasing allure.

What if he didn't come back from this mission? Forcing her eyes away from Ronon, she looked back at the level below to John and Teyla. Her position did not allow her the luxury of that kind of fear. How she envied the freedom of choice her dear friends had.

Ronon Dex stared at John and Teyla. His soldier's discipline respected their privacy but his human eyes drank in the intimacy his two friends shared. In the months since his life had collided with these people and this place, the part of him that had been corrupted and disfigured by his seven-year ordeal with the Wraith had begun to heal. The suffering had been replaced by a real safety. His abilities and experience had purpose and direction now that he had a cause to fight for. The sense of security he felt was due, in part, to the two people on the floor below him.

His chest tightened as the other nagging truth of his growing attachment to this place surfaced. He closed his eyes and the image of Elizabeth Weir's face as he'd first seen it that day he'd arrived in Atlantis took over his mind. In the beginning it hadn't mattered what she thought of him. Free of the Wraith tracking device he'd been locked to, he could have gone anywhere he chose. That she'd given him a chance was a surprise. As the months went by, her acceptance of him as part of Sheppard's team increased his respect for her as the leader of this expedition. Her courage and strength left an imprint on him as it did on everyone in Atlantis.

He wasn't sure when his feelings for her started to change direction. His early impulsive desire to subdue and conquer her had quickly dissipated as he watched and listened to her do her job. The intelligence and self-assurance that were so much a part of her were a challenge to him to succeed here. She wasn't afraid to make the hard decisions of command.

Elizabeth's compassion and understanding had drawn him in at every turn until he realized she was a woman he could show that deeply hidden part of himself that he couldn't share even with his closest friends. There had been only one other woman he had allowed that close to him. Even if his former love had survived the destruction of Sateda, there was no going back. He was too pragmatic to delude himself after all this time.

His old friend Solon had assumed that he and Teyla were a match back on Belsa. Even if there hadn't been the connection to Sheppard, he wasn't drawn to Teyla as more than a friend. In many ways they were too much alike. The Wraith had indelibly marked them both. They hadn't scarred Sheppard and Elizabeth that deeply so far. Yet each had scars from their own world. He and Teyla were the counterbalance to them.

More images of Elizabeth scrolled across his recent memory. Her smiles and laughter mingled with the solitary loneliness he sometimes saw in her eyes. The moments that amused him most, despite the seriousness of the circumstances, were her rare displays of anger. So far, he'd avoided being the object of her displeasure. He'd almost felt sorry for McKay when the scientist had been on the receiving end of her temper after blowing up a planet. He wondered what it would be like to have her strong emotions focused on him.

When Atlantis had been sabotaged by an unknown source, he had offered to do what her people considered an ethically questionable interrogation and she had accepted. Her trust and acknowledgement of his value to their fight against the Wraith did more to confirm that he had chosen the right woman than any words of affection. Despite the different worlds they came from, they were equally matched in all the ways that were important to him.

Too often lately, he'd dreamed about surrendering to his desire for her. There were still moments when the anger, distrust and cruelty he'd learned since Sateda and the Wraith came too close to the surface. Her simple presence made him remember what gentleness he had once been capable of giving. His violent past wasn't pretty and most women wouldn't tolerate his continuing choices and patterns. Deep down he knew she would understand and accept him for who he was.

He had considered leaving before his physical need for her overcame his deeply ingrained control. But the void losing her would create in his life was too much added pain. He'd worked too hard to come back from the pit of despair the Wraith had thrown him into. Yet he respected her too much to complicate her life and compromise her position as leader. There was so much he wanted to show her about himself but couldn't because of the line that existed between them.

There might come a day when the loneliness of not having her became too much and he would leave. It wouldn't be anytime soon. He was relatively content to wait and see if something would change. That renewal of hope in the future was the strongest emotion he had gained from knowing Elizabeth Weir.

Ronon looked across to the doorway of her office and was startled to see her standing there. He followed her eyes down to the floor where John and Teyla stood. When he looked back at her, he was drawn in by the sweet smile of longing on her face.

Elizabeth felt an emotional jolt and looked across at Ronon. Their eyes came together and held for longer than she'd ever allowed. The feral look he wore so naturally softened unexpectedly as his expression changed to a very direct stare. She stepped out onto the walkway and faced him.

Ronon noted her open response to his stare. He stood up straight and turned toward her.

He was going on another mission that could cost him his life. Just this once, he needed to show her more. He smiled and winked in the most rakish way he'd learned long ago as a young soldier.

Elizabeth let her defenses fall with the slow intimate nod she directed at him. The intensity of her smile crossed the line she acknowledged was between them. But she didn't care.

Mutually breaking the long, hypnotic stare, Ronon hurried down the stairs to join his teammates while Elizabeth turned her unwilling attention to the whining voice of Rodney McKay who was just exiting the elevator.

Neither looked at the other again as the team headed for the jumper bay. But the exhilaration each felt from their little moment of flirtation would stay with them. They hoped there would be other looks and other smiles across the line that separated them.