Title : Love Cant Hide

Date : 13th May 2007

Author : ElaineDex

Chapter : 5 of ?

Rating : M

Pairing : Lt. Cl. John Sheppard/Lyssa Hunter, Ronon Dex/Dr. Ellie Harrison-Dex

Archiving : None

Warning : Some sexual content, possible swearing.

Spoilers : This storey follows on from Love After Love.

Feedback : Yes

Disclaimer : Only Ellie is mine, Stargate/Atlantis and all their characters are not. Lyssa Hunter belongs to Kazavid.

Summary : Following her second reunion with Ronon, Lyssa realises that maybe he wasnt her one true love after all.

Special Thanks to Kazavid for her imput with this Chapter.

Ellie watched Ronon play with his food and knew something was not right.

"What's wrong?", she asked as she swapped Hope to her other arm.

Ronon looked at his wife for a moment trying to decide whether to tell her what the problem was. He didn't want her to misunderstand his reasoning behind caring about Lyssa.

Eventually he said,

"I saw Sheppard kissing Lyssa".

"Oh, that", Ellie replied and Ronon stared at her.

"You knew?", he asked incredulously and Ellie immediately looked guilty.

"I knew they had feelings for each other but I didn't know anything had happened between them", she answered.

"How long have you known?", Ronon said, his tone telling Ellie he was less than happy.

"A while", she said evasively but Ronon caught her hand on the table as she reached for one of Hope's toys.

"How long is a while?".

Ellie looked at him, dread filling her heart. They had been so happy lately and she didn't want that to change, not after everything they'd been through.

"Does it matter?", she asked and the look he gave her told her it obviously did.

Sighing she said, "Lyssa told me on the day I killed Michael. She told me to convince me that you loved me and not her…..Ronon don't be mad at me or Lyssa".

"I thought Sheppard was my friend", Ronon said angrily.

"He is", Ellie answered, her throat drying up as Ronon stood.

"Oh yeah, then why didn't he tell me? In fact why couldn't any of you tell me?" and Ellie saw the hurt in his eyes as he stalked away.

ooOoo

Ronon caught up with Sheppard as he was leaving the training room with Teyla and he rammed him up against the wall causing Teyla to cry out in shock.

"Ronon, what are you doing?", she asked, pulling at his arm as he all but throttled Sheppard.

"That's a very good question", Sheppard choked out.

"Why didn't you tell me?", Ronon asked, sounding extremely pissed about something.

"Tell you what?", Sheppard croaked, having a feeling he already knew.

"I thought you were my friend, I thought that I could trust you", Ronon said releasing Sheppard who raised a hand to his throbbing neck.

"I am and you can", he replied.

"Ronon, what is this about?", Teyla asked. She had never really known Ronon to turn on Sheppard like this and it concerned her.

"Ask him", Ronon said through gritted teeth and Teyla looked to Sheppard.

"If I'm guessing right then this has something to do with Lyssa", Sheppard said and Ronon glared at him.

He wondered why the hell everyone thought that they had to keep it secret from him.

He couldn't see the problem, unless Sheppard wasn't serious and was just having a bit of fun with Lyssa? Maybe he shouldn't interfere, maybe he should just let them do what they wanted to.

After all they were not his responsibility, but no matter how much he told himself that, Ronon couldn't help feeling responsible for Lyssa. She had no family, or friends to turn to, only him, and he wasn't about to let Sheppard use her and then move on to some other willing woman when he was bored with her.

"Why didn't you have the guts to tell me what was going on?", he asked Sheppard who answered,

"Because I wasn't sure what was going on."

"This isn't another one of your so called flings is it, because if it is..."

"No it's nothing like that, I care for her, but it's still in the early stages yet", Sheppard replied.

"So why didn't you tell me?", Ronon pushed.

"What am I supposed to say, 'Hey Ronon I fancy your old girlfriend, you got a problem with that?'. What exactly did you expect me to say?", Sheppard asked, his tone mildly sarcastic.

"You could have said something", Ronon answered feeling slightly calmer.

"Yeah, well, Lyssa didn't want to say anything, not until you and Ellie were back together, and everything was alright between you guys", Sheppard said sighing as Ronon just stared at him.

"Ellie and I have been married for weeks. How long where you going to wait?", Ronon asked and when Sheppard didn't reply immediately he turned and walked away.

"John, what is going on?", Teyla asked and Sheppard looked at her.

"I'm sort of involved with Lyssa", he answered warily and Teyla rolled her eyes.

"Sort of?", she asked and Sheppard shrugged.

"Ronon will be very angry if you hurt Lyssa", Teyla commented and Sheppard laughed.

"You mean that wasn't very angry" and Teyla smiled.

"Look, I have no intention of hurting Lyssa", Sheppard said and Teyla nodded. For his sake she hoped he was being truthful.

ooOoo

A day or so later and Ronon was still skulking around. He was being off with Ellie even though he knew he shouldn't be, he had avoided Lyssa even though she had called out to him once or twice in the corridors and as for Sheppard….he felt let down by Sheppard.

As for Lyssa, she was starting to feel bad for keeping her feelings for Sheppard from Ronon. He was the only friend (as such) that she had and she felt guilty for not telling him. She had tried talking to him but he had ignored her when she'd called out to him. She began to feel so bad that just before she was due to go off-world with her team she sought out Sheppard.

"Are you alright?", Sheppard asked and she shook her head.

"I feel like we're doing something wrong", she said,

Sheppard took her hands in his.

"But we're not", he replied.

"I know...", she trailed off as Sheppard cocked his head to one side.

"Why do I sense a but?", he asked suspiciously and she frowned.

"Maybe we should stop seeing each other for a while, let things calm down".

"Lyssa...Ronon's a big boy, he'll come round", Sheppard said and Lyssa sighed.

"I've hurt his feelings, we all have. I should have known he'd be upset after everything we've both been through".

"He seems more upset with me than he does with you. Why don't you let me deal with him?", Sheppard tried but Lyssa shook her head.

Just then though Dr Weir's voice buzzed in Lyssa's ear.

"Major Lorne's team to the gate room please".

"I have to go", Lyssa said about to go when Sheppard pulled her against him.

His kiss made her tremble and she wondered could she stay away from him even if she wanted to.

ooOoo

The atmosphere over the next week didn't get any better and everyone on Atlantis became aware of the tension between Sheppard, Ronon and Lyssa.

One afternoon Lyssa was walking to her quarters when she happened upon Ronon and Ellie arguing in one of the corridors. Ellie looked fairly upset and as she spotted Lyssa she made some comment to Ronon and walked off.

"Ronon?", Lyssa said as she approached him.

Ronon folded his arms and avoided her gaze.

"Lyssa", he replied in greeting.

"What's wrong with Ellie?", she asked and Ronon frowned.

"She overheard some of the women Marines talking. They were saying that maybe I still have feelings for you and that's why i'm being off with Sheppard".

"But that's not true I take it", Lyssa said and Ronon shook his head.

"I just don't want you to be hurt Lyss, that's all there is to it. I've known Sheppard a while now and he's well...he has a reputation with women. You deserve to be treated properly".

Lyssa touched his arm.

"Ronon, you need to speak to John".

"I've been an idiot haven't I?", Ronon said and Lyssa smiled.

"It's fixable but I think you'd better not leave it much longer".

"I'll talk to him soon", Ronon said, feeling he needed to fix things with Ellie first.

End of Chapter 5