A/N: This wasn't supposed to be a R/K. I had decided from the beginning it wouldn't be. But it seems the plot bunnies had other ideas, and I was totally blocked on how to end this until I gave in. -Punk
Jennifer awakened the next morning to the sound of soft but confused voices from the next room. She sat up on the couch, blinking and rubbing her eyes. Before her the embers from the previous night's fire glowed and crackled in the fireplace. She wondered brefily why she wasn't colder before noticing the thick woolen blanket that was pooled around her waist and still tucked tightly around her legs.
She frowned, rubbing the soft fabric between her thumb and forefingers. She didn't remember falling asleep. And she didn't remember wrapping herself in a blanket either.
A famliar, slightly plaintive voice worked its way into her groggy musings and she turned toward the front door.
"Rodney?"
Siria glanced at her and widened the door opening, a confused frown on her own brow.
"You know this man?"
"Ah! Jennifer!" Rodney smiled and pointed at the girl. "See? I told you I had the right place." He tilted his head. "Although with the way Sheppard gives directions I admit it just as easily could have gone the other way."
Jennifer untangled herself from the blanket and joined the other two at the door, where Siria was nodding to Rodney and he ducked inside.
"What are you doing here? Where's John and Teyla?"
Rodney bent to kiss her quickly and Jen blinked, a bit startled, and blushed, avoiding Siria's politely averted face.
"Oh, um, we got a communication from one of the leaders on Ladon's council. The Genii are having a trade dispute and asked he and Teyla to come mediate. It sounded, well um, just not that interesting so I volunteered to come for you instead." He smiled, puffing out his chest slightly, sure in his decision.
Jen smiled back and nodded slightly. "Oh. Okay. Good." She nodded again. "Thanks Rodney."
Siria had returned to the kitchen, gathering food for the morning meal and Rodney's attention quickly turned to the various meats and baked goods being spread on the long rustic wood table that separated the open space between the kitchen and living area.
"Don't mention it. Is that, um, Celkin meat?" He waggled a finger at the chunks of reddish meat on a circular tray and glanced at Siria. "It is, isn't it?"
Siria nodded, looking half bewildered and half amused. "Yes."
"Wonderful. This stuffs great, Jen. Something that's actually marginally chicken-like and just fantiastic with this white cheese that comes from the same animal. May I?"
Again, Siria nodded, and watched as Rodney made himself comfortable at the table and began fixing himself a plate.
Jennifer tugged on her uniform jacket and returned to the couch to fold up the mystery blanket. She finished and turned at the sound of Siria's voice.
"This is for you," the young woman held out a tray with three mugs of steaming liquid. "It will warm you until I get the fire started again."
Jennifer wrapped her hands around the mug and shivered as she tried to coax the warmth through her fingers and into the rest of her body. Siria placed the tray on the small table in front of the sofa and went to the fireplace.
"I hope you were warm enough last night. This room gets much cooler than the sleeping rooms. I fell asleep yesterday afternoon and didn't wake again until early this morning. I feel ashamed, I should have offered you my bed." Siria glanced at her, looking remorseful and Jen shook her head.
"Oh no, I was fine." She looked at the blanket again, now folded and sitting at one end of the sofa. "Did you...?"
Siria followed her haze and smiled secretively. "No. I did not." She turned back to the fire, pausing to blow softly against the coals until a small flame began to flicker.
Jen's eyes drifted to the door she'd watched Ronon disappear into the night before. It had gotten several degrees colder overnight. She wondered what time it must have been when he got up. How deeply must she have been sleeping for him to enter the room and cover her with the blanket. Not just cover her.
Tuck her in. Make sure she was warm enough. Make sure she would be comfortable. Even now, after everything between them and all he was going through.
He'd thought of her.
Jen shivered again.
"He cares for you."
Her eyes snapped over to Siria's but she was looking across the room at Rodney, where he was finishing off his meal with a large glass of water. His eyes met hers over the rim of his glass and he smiled. Jen smiled back.
"Yes." She nodded. "I think he does."
She returned her gaze to Siria's to find the young woman regarding her with dark eyes that held a shadow of the steady clarity she'd been subjected to so much recently from Camaiya. And she was left wondering if the girl had even been referring to Rodney at all.
"I should bring these to Cam and Ronon." Siria moved to stand and Jen realized if she did she'd be left alone with Rodney. With the questions and uncertainty that she suddenly felt settling between them.
Unwilling to face that idea just yet, she found herself leaping to her feet as well.
"Oh, let me!" She placed her own mug aside quickly. "I need to check on Cam anyway."
The other woman hesitated and then nodded. "Thank you."
Jen blanced the tray in one hand and knocked, receiving an invitation before she entered the bedroom. The small room was much warmer than the outer great room, just as Siria had said. On the floor at the foot of the bed she saw a pillow and rumpled blanket, and she knew where Ronon had spent the night.
Looking toward the bed, Jen was surprised to find Camaiya was already up, looking quite a bit stronger than she had the day before. Her hair had been let down from her bun and hung in shiny silver strands down her back. She sat in the chair beside the bed, with Ronon standing behind her, hairbrush in hand, giving the back of his mother's head a concentrated look.
"Good morning Dr. Keller." Camiaya smiled. "Ah, my tea. Thank you." She reached for one of the stone mugs, but she couldn't quite reach it.
Jennifer had stopped just inside the door and was staring openly as Ronon gently, but confidently, ran the brush through his mother's thick locks, carefully detangling the ends before drawing the brush through the length of the grey locks in one smooth motion. Once satisfied that he'd brushed the knots out, he jammed the brush into his back pocket and began carefully separating the hair into equal sized clumps, deftly twisting an impossibly intricate looking braid into shape.
Camaiya raised an eyebrow at the frozen doctor.
"Dr. Keller?"
Upon hearing her name Jen blinked and blushed. "Sorry." She bent over and Cam took a mug, eyeing the younger woman thoughtfully. She hid a smile behind a sip of her tea as Ronon continued his work, obvious to the attention, and Jen sat on the bed near the older woman, trying not to look as if she was still staring.
"Ronon is quite accomplished at some of the more rudimentary Satedan hairstyles." Camaiya explained. "When I went back to work after Katrai died, he was an invaluable help in helping get his younger sisters dressed and out the door for Lessons."
The corner's of Ronon's eyes crinkled when he smiled. "You wiggle a lot less than they ever did."
Camaiya laughed, sipping her tea again. "Oh I know. They would make quite a fuss. Although much of it was for show. I think they enjoyed frustrating you, little one."
Ronon snorted, sticking a few small hairpins in his mouth as he twisted the locks together and up on top of his mother's head. "I know they did." He muttered, pulling the pins out one at a time and fastening her hair into a style very similar to the one she'd been wearing the day before.
Jen was staring openly again. Listening carefully to the family banter, feeling at once warm and welcome and slightly intrusive. Like watching someone else's family traditions from another room.
She also wondered what the complex hairstyles on Sateda were like if this was considered rudimentary.
Satisfied with his work, and no longer able to avoid it, Ronon lifted his gaze to Jennifer's. She swallowed, holding it, forcing herself to take the full brunt of his intense gaze.
Though she felt suddenly warm, she shivered again.
Silently, Ronon reached for the last remaining mug of tea, still sitting on the tray Jennifer held in her lap.
"Um...how did you, um, sleep?" Jen tore her eyes off of Ronon and looked at Camiaya.
Her green eye seemed to be smiling at a private joke when she responded smoothly. "I slept well, thank you. You?"
"Don't beleive her. She woke up every hour." Ronon's rumble cut in and he sat on the bed beside Jennifer, giving his mother a look. "I think she was in pain."
Jen tried not to notice the heat radiating off of him as she spoke.
"You were in pain?" She repeated. Camaiya sent Ronon a dark look and waved off the concern in Jen's voice.
"It is nothing. When you are old, pain is a constant companion."
Jen swallowed, standing up if only to put some distance between herself and Ronon.
"That may be but I still have something I can give you that will make you more comfortable."
"That's very kind of you but-"
"Mother." Ronon warned.
"But I do not need anything. Thank you." Camaiya continued as if he hadn't spoken.
"It's nothing that will make you feel any differently. It won't put you to sleep. It's just a mild pain reliever." Jennifer glanced at Ronon, who was still glaring lightly at his mother. "I could give them to you just in case you change your mind."
"If you insist." Camaiya sighed. She stood from her chair, looking for all the world like a woman who'd never known sickness in her life, and followed Jen to the door, Ronon in tow.
In the main room, Ronon moved to one side and leaned against the wall, sipping his tea and content to let the others carry on without him. He was used to watching quietly from the sidelines. As a Runner, he'd often scouted planets and villages before entering and seeking any kind of assistance. And before that, he'd often spent time at gatherings of his peers by standing in the shadows and watching the other kids interact.
Watching silently, he'd found was one of the best ways to gather information. It was one of the reasons he was so good at reading facial expressions and body language. One of the reasons he'd been chosen to join the elite Specialist rank when he joined the Satedan Army. He was a born watcher.
Ronon watched quietly as Jen explained the pain relievers to her and Siria. He watched, amused as always, when Rodney packed the small cloth Siria gave him with food to take back to Atlantis. He watched with concern when Cam tried her best not to look like the short trek from her room to the kitchen hadn't taken all her energy and as if she was sitting just to get a different view of the room.
And he watched with quite a bit of interest when Jennifer and Rodney bid the trio a farewell and Rodney placed his hand at the small of Jen's back to guide her gently toward the door. Watched the way Jen stiffened imperceptibly and her eyes shot over to his. Watched with a narrowed gaze when she stepped out of Rodney's reach and then sent him an apologetic smile when the man's pale eyebrows knitted together slightly at the move.
He watched them leave, questions and caution floating in his mind, but he kept a careful reign on the hope that tried to bubble up and stamped down the small bit of elation with great predjudice. Elation, joy, he didn't have a right to. Not yet. For all Rodney was he was still his teammate and a friend. Still someone he wanted the best for.
But hope...hope was different.
Hope was his still and, it appeared, hope was not yet lost.
TBC